In the high-stakes world of drug development, years of painstaking research can hinge on a stroke of serendipity – or the stubborn resolve of a single scientist. A riveting new book, “Breakthrough: The Quest for Life-changing Medicines” by William Pao, unveils the human stories driving some of modern medicine’s most transformative innovations.
Chance Discoveries & Dogged Determination
From the accidental invention of fever-reducing acetanilide by a German paint company to the lightning-speed development of Covid-19 antivirals, “Breakthrough” chronicles the quirky, meandering paths to pharmaceutical progress. Throughout, Pao underscores the tenacity of the researchers – many spurred by personal encounters with devastating illness – toiling to save future patients from similar fates.
One researcher, without access to specialized equipment, jury-rigged an old Coke machine into a bespoke tool for his spinal muscular atrophy work. For the pandemic-era antiviral team, brainstorming sessions occurred not in high-tech labs but over video calls, as homebound scientists pored over molecular structures to “decide which bits to keep and which to discard.”
Stubborn Steps Forward
Pao, an oncologist-turned-pharma-executive, peppers his accounts with poignant character sketches: The trainee doctor shaken by a sickle cell patient’s rapid demise, who resolves to seek a cure. The girl whose forest rambles with her biologist grandfather, after losing her father to cancer, propel her to devise treatments for therapy-resistant breast cancer. As Pao writes:
A lot of what we do in pharmaceutical research seems to go nowhere and can look like failure… [But] everything we learn and discover, especially in a well-connected ecosystem with good institutional memory and data sharing, has the potential to be important at some later date.
This web of “slow, incremental, and seemingly meandering innovation” by dogged researchers globally, fueled by “curiosity and the thirst for knowledge,” has collectively yielded the medical miracles we often take for granted.
Perseverance Pays Off
While much of drug discovery’s tedious reality unfolds behind the scenes, “witnessed and appreciated by only a small handful of people,” its end results are very public indeed. As Pao’s father’s abrupt cancer death set him on his own medical trajectory, a new generation of patients – and potential future scientists – can now live on, thanks to previous unsung research triumphs.
- Lung cancer, breast cancer
- Sickle cell anemia, hemophilia
- HIV/AIDS and Covid-19
“Breakthrough” is an invigorating reminder that each of these life-altering therapies began with the grit and vision of unrelenting scientists, toiling at society’s edges to transmute inchoate ideas into concrete, lifesaving realities. As Pao summons us to remember, we are all beneficiaries of their persistence.
One researcher, without access to specialized equipment, jury-rigged an old Coke machine into a bespoke tool for his spinal muscular atrophy work. For the pandemic-era antiviral team, brainstorming sessions occurred not in high-tech labs but over video calls, as homebound scientists pored over molecular structures to “decide which bits to keep and which to discard.”
Stubborn Steps Forward
Pao, an oncologist-turned-pharma-executive, peppers his accounts with poignant character sketches: The trainee doctor shaken by a sickle cell patient’s rapid demise, who resolves to seek a cure. The girl whose forest rambles with her biologist grandfather, after losing her father to cancer, propel her to devise treatments for therapy-resistant breast cancer. As Pao writes:
A lot of what we do in pharmaceutical research seems to go nowhere and can look like failure… [But] everything we learn and discover, especially in a well-connected ecosystem with good institutional memory and data sharing, has the potential to be important at some later date.
This web of “slow, incremental, and seemingly meandering innovation” by dogged researchers globally, fueled by “curiosity and the thirst for knowledge,” has collectively yielded the medical miracles we often take for granted.
Perseverance Pays Off
While much of drug discovery’s tedious reality unfolds behind the scenes, “witnessed and appreciated by only a small handful of people,” its end results are very public indeed. As Pao’s father’s abrupt cancer death set him on his own medical trajectory, a new generation of patients – and potential future scientists – can now live on, thanks to previous unsung research triumphs.
- Lung cancer, breast cancer
- Sickle cell anemia, hemophilia
- HIV/AIDS and Covid-19
“Breakthrough” is an invigorating reminder that each of these life-altering therapies began with the grit and vision of unrelenting scientists, toiling at society’s edges to transmute inchoate ideas into concrete, lifesaving realities. As Pao summons us to remember, we are all beneficiaries of their persistence.
