Abstract
Drug Discovery from Bedside to Wall Street is a primer of the drug discovery and development processes in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in the USA but with incursions in worldwide issues. The book is written in a conversational style that is generally easy and enjoyable to follow. It has multiple text boxes which delve more in depth into specific issues, often of a scientific nature. The opinions in the book are obviously those of one of the authors, and, at times, it reads like an interview with the text responding to a question in the chapter title. The book is full of the extensive experience of one of the authors but short in references. The book is intended particularly for medicinal chemists in academia, to give them an idea of the process of drug discovery and development. However, the book does not enter into the issues of toxicity. Although it is long in ideas for strategies on how to discover compounds and new targets, particularly in the CNS indications, it ignores for the most part the issues of safety and toxicology. The authors' approach is that the search is for “toxicologically clean” compounds, and, consequently, the issue of risk management does not get broached. There are a few typos, and a few statements are inaccurate—for instance, “no one comes out with a new formulation composing two or more drugs”, which seems to ignore the whole, evolving field of combination therapy that has achieved several recent approvals.
There are some good ideas to introduce people to the business of biotech companies and the approaches to pharmacogenomics, which are very well done. The last two chapters are very interesting and full of ideas for addressing the issue of the pharmaceutical industry and its role in society. However, the issue of price controls is barely touched; such issues as the re-importation of drugs and trans-national purchases through the internet, accessibility to drugs by the USA population, and other similar issues are either ignored or summarily mentioned. In summary, this book should be very interesting to veterinary pathologists considering careers in the pharmaceutical industry, or working in it, but do not look for specific guidance about how the profession contributes because you would not find it.