How are drugs born? If you're really curious about this, you'd be fascinated by the weekly meetings of industry experts and academic researchers taking part in Stanford's drug-development training program known as SPARK.
A recently published book, A Practical Guide to Drug Development in Academia, crystallizes the sessions. Even if you're not a scientist dreaming of curing cancer with your latest discovery, you might find it interesting.
In his recent review of the book for Nature Chemical Biology, industrial medicinal chemist Derek Lowe, PhD, writes:
I would actually welcome it if this book’s intended audience were broadened even more. Younger scientists starting out in the drug industry would benefit from reading it and getting some early exposure to parts of the process that they’ll eventually have to understand. Journalists covering the industry (especially the small startup companies) will find this book a good reality check for many an over-hopeful press release. Even advanced investors who might want to know what really happens in the labs will find information here that might otherwise be difficult to track down in such a concentrated form.
Lowe also wrote about the book last week on his blog, In the Pipeline, where an interesting discussion has begun.
Previously: SPARK program helps researchers cross the “valley of death” between drug discovery and development and Accelerating the translation of biomedical research into clinical applications.
Photograph from Wellcome Images
