Building a drug

Finding a chemical starting point – or hit – for a new drug usually takes years of multidisciplinary work. But even after reaching this step, there is still a long way to go before that molecule is anywhere near ready for the clinic. This was the stage where Wolfgang Jahnke and Andreas Marzinzik, two scientists at Novartis Biomedical Research, found themselves in 2010. They had discovered a first-in-class molecule and the next step was to give the reins over to their colleagues who could turn that hit into a drug candidate. That was when Joseph Schoepfer and Pascal Furet joined the team.

Text by K.E.D Coan, photos by Laurids Jensen, videos by Nicolas Heitz