Subject: Drug design

From: [email-masked] (Hugo Villar)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 93 10:54:24 PST

Hi everyone!
	Several considerations on drug design at the industry. The most
striking success story tome is that of the Agouron people in San Diego is sort
of a textbook example. There are also several textbook failures!. 
	Second people are not as naive as we think in the industry any more. 
Thanks to the work of many people they know what to expect. 
(I do not want to give particular names to avoid the injustice of forgetting
some of these true pioneers).
Most big companies have modeling efforts. Some are more commmitted to 
theoretical tools than others. There are companies that are based on the 
premise of theoretical drug design for drug discovery, such as Arris 
Pharmaceuticals, Vertex and Auguron. However, even the "laymen" in most 
companies understand  enough to realize that they cannot expect all the 
solutions from their modeling groups. However, there is a way to check
the level of enlightment of the person who is interviewing you: ask them what 
is that they expect from the computational chemistry/modeling groups. 
 If the answer is the Sun and the Stars you'll be better off waiting for the 
next opportunity. When I asked that to my current boss the answer was: " I am 
aware that we can not expect a single handed solution to our drug design 
problems from you. However, I know that we are better off with you onboard than
 without someone like you."

	In other words, can anyone mention a drug that has been taken to the 
market or clinical trials because of NMR or X-Ray crystallography?. However,
we are better off with them than without them. In multidisciplinary 
collaborative projects it is very hard to trace which is the contribution of 
any one field to the ultimate success of the project. I think that part of 
the problem lies with the use of terms like computer-aided drug design, it 
makes it sound too much like designing a car. Nothing further from the truth..
	Sorry I got carried away.
					Hugo Villar 
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Hugo O. Villar, PhD. Computational Chemistry Lab. Terrapin Technologies, Inc.
750-H Gateway Blvd. South San Francisco. CA 94080. (415)244-9303.
FAX: (415) 244-9388.
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