Derek Lowe

Boston, Massachusetts

Contributor at Freelance

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Articles

Women are not just another confounding factor in drug development

1 month ago | chemistryworld.com | Derek Lowe

Ignoring physiological differences between the sexes is indefensibleBased on my own experiences in drug discovery, I think there are two (nearly opposite) large-scale mistakes that can be made relating to women and their treatment. Source: © Anchiy/Getty Images One is the historical error of treating the entire female side of the human species as if it weren’t there, or can be easily approximated as slightly different-shaped males.
In search of truth and rules

1 month ago | chemistryworld.com | Derek Lowe

To codify and predict ever more complex phenomena is one of science’s great drivers Source: © Daniel Liévano/Ikon Images There are a lot of reasons why people are motivated to do scientific research, with sheer curiosity about the natural world being near the top of the list. But there’s another one that I think doesn’t get enough attention: the desire to believe that there really are truths and rules. To someone outside the field, that might sound a bit perverse.
Welcome to the MegaPharm target selection and project resourcing meeting

2 months ago | chemistryworld.com | Derek Lowe

Overheard recently in a seminar room near you… Source: © Wouter Tulp/Ikon Images Let me start with a few comments about our medicinal chemistry group that probably apply equally to all of the therapeutic areas below. I have been told at various times over the years that computational methods were becoming so powerful that they were going to lead us directly to drugs. Then I was told that making uncountable zillions of near-random compounds was the way forward.
Things I Won't Work With: Dioxygen Difluoride

2 months ago | science.org | Derek Lowe

The latest addition to the long list of chemicals that I never hope to encounter takes us back to the wonderful world of fluorine chemistry. I'm always struck by how much work has taken place in that field, how long ago some of it was first done, and how many violently hideous compounds have been carefully studied. Here's how the experimental prep of today's fragrant breath of spring starts:The heater was warmed to approximately 700C.
Beam Therapeutics: Single-Base Editing Seems To Work

Mar 10, 2025 | seekingalpha.com | Derek Lowe

SummaryI was looking forward to seeing how Beam Therapeutics would do in their clinical trials of single-base DNA editing therapies, and this morning we have a readout. It was a very small trial: three patients each got 15mg, 30mg, or 60mg of BEAM-302 in a single infusion. Things look good in these early readouts, I have to say. It is of course a small number of patients, but the data make sense, and the numbers clearly seem to be going in the right direction.
Stand Up And Be Counted

Feb 12, 2025 | science.org | Derek Lowe

Here’s an editorial by Adam Feuerstein at Stat that points out that in all the uproar about the Trump administration’s attacks on the NIH (and the NSF, and NOAA, and other science-based agencies), there’s a conspicuous zone of silence. And that’s the biopharma industry. It’s clear that almost everyone is keeping their heads down in the interest of “keeping lines of communication open” and so on. “Thanks for checking in. Nothing to share on this now,” a PhRMA media representative told STAT.
CNS Drug Development: Same As It Ever Was (SAGE)

Nov 19, 2024 | seekingalpha.com | Derek Lowe

SummarySage Therapeutics has been working in the area of steroid-derived compounds that affect CNS receptor signaling. A pivotal trial failed to show benefit, and they had several other clinical failures as well. They have a clinical trial readout in Huntington's disease later this fall, and man, that's a tough place to make your stand.
Taking A Look At Eli Lilly's Q3 2024 Revenue Miss Amid Supply Chain Challenges

Oct 30, 2024 | seekingalpha.com | Derek Lowe

Oct. 30, 2024 2:15 PM ET, SummaryEli Lilly had $11.4 billion in revenue for the quarter (up 20% versus Q3 figures from last year), with a net income of $970 million after expenses. Analysts at the various Wall Street firms expected Lilly to have brought in about $12.2 billion. And if you look at the sales figures for the company's GLP-1 drugs, you see a shortfall there. Lilly's stock took quite a notable hit after these results were released.
Large language models are great, but they don’t speak to me

Oct 28, 2024 | chemistryworld.com | Derek Lowe

As I write this, we have recently concluded the Year of Machine Learning Nobel Prizes. Who knows, perhaps there will be another in 20 years, but this was the first. As someone who has a reputation for being an AI/ML skeptic (which I sometimes think is the default category for anyone who actually reads the press releases all the way to the end), I should say immediately that I think that all of the prizes this year were well-deserved. That’s because machine learning truly is useful.
A Pfight At Pfizer

Oct 24, 2024 | seekingalpha.com | Derek Lowe

Oct. 24, 2024 12:20 PM ET, SummaryThere's some rumbling going on within Pfizer's investment community, as an activist hedge fund says that the company's performance has not been good enough. Pfizer has been in an anomalous situation the last few years, to be sure, thanks to the pandemic. Then there's always the question of productivity in general. Whether you like Pfizer or not, the company did a great deal to combat the coronavirus.