Deep Dive: A Primer on Drug Development

How do drugs interact with biological processes in the body? How does drug development work? Why have companies developing novel drugs seen poor returns over the past decade?

(Note to our readers: We decided to focus on drug development more broadly, as this provides the best foundation for understanding biotech, pharmaceuticals, and biological research.) Countless biological processes are occurring within the human body at any given moment. These biological processes are often so complicated or happening so quickly that scientists today do not understand how they work. The subset of biological processes that we can break down into a sequence of molecular interactions ultimately become targets for new drugs. Drugs are substances that chemically alter…