PHRM 6280 Current Strategies and Challenges in Drug Discovery

2 SCH. Students will acquire up-to-date knowledge of the real world challenges and solutions in therapeutic drug discovery and development from early stages of basic research ideas to market. The course offers innovative direct and informative interaction between students and experts at the frontiers of development of novel therapies for challenging diseases and disorders such as cancer, stroke, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury and other neurological disorders. A key strength of the course is course instructors who will include an unprecedentedly broad spectrum of acting and former academic and industrial researchers, physicians, business owners and professionals supporting medical research through private funds and organizations as well as experts in intellectual property rights, patent laws and applications patent officers and attorneys independent of their location in the world. The course will include both live classroom- and skype-based lectures, pre-recorded video conferences and self-learning sessions. A specific emphasis will be given to hidden and common traps, errors and missteps in the drug development process, lessons from failed pre-clinical and clinical trials and unmaterialized potentials that make promising scientific concepts and business initiatives fail irreversibly. An important driving force for this course is a common lack of understanding that a sound confirmed scientific proof-of principle only takes drug developers to the start line from which the marathon of drug development begins. Thus, the course will help students to gain a comprehensive understanding of scientific, fiscal and legal challenges and solutions associated with development of novel therapies.
Prerequisite: GSBS core courses.
Offered Every other Fall - Odd Years
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