In 1990 I saw a film in the career department of my school
that was simply called "Pharmaceutical". It was a true piece of
propaganda that I could not possible see through at the time. Men (and some
women) in white lab coats drew chemical structures on the board and 'designed'
the next new great drug. "Let's just try putting a phenyl group
here." This is the biggest single driving quotation that I recall. There
was simplicity in those few words. It seemed so trivial; all I need to do was
learn to draw chemical structures and make bold suggestions and the world will
be mine! Of course, from one end to the other it is nonsense. Top
biotechnology colleges in Rajasthan is not as easily tamed as a humble
white board. The word "just" is so misplaced when one considers the
implications on a molecular level. How is it possible to persuade 6.022 x 10
(with 17 0s behind) molecules (we often work on the mill molar scale) to dance
to one's tune? You cannot is the answer, they are not thought driven and they
do not have what it takes to be persuaded. They follow the energy and do what
chaos dictates: you get a mess, is what I am saying.
It took another eight years of training
for biotechnology in jaipur to be fully cognizant of the fact that
molecules are more like cats than like dogs. You cannot train them, but you can
make it seem like they are doing what you want by making the conditions right
so that what they want is what you want, or will accept! So "just"
putting a phenyl group there can be a very lengthy exercise and need not ever
actually happen!
Let us describe now the pharmaceutical development process:
imagine for a minute that you are a molecule and you are eaten by a human, what
do you see and where do you go? Imagine that you are supposed to make your way
to a single receptor that sits on a particular cell type in a specific organ
and you are to do one job, get out, do not get caught. It all sounds very
'Mission Impossible' and somehow it is. The human body is a magnificently
complex place and there are huge challenges for Doctor Molecule wherever he
goes. The good Doctor can get stuck in fat, or never make it out of the
stomach, be chewed up by the liver or rapidly sent out to the bladder. Of
course the other side to the story is Mister Chemical. All drugs are chemicals,
all life is organized chemistry, but for the sake of this metaphor Mister
Chemical could attack the body, or disrupt it balance, do more harm than good
and even kill the body if enough friends are present. The pharmaceutical
development process is the long road from the lab bench to the bed side where
hundreds of studies are undertaken to assess the good qualities of Doctor
Molecule and the bad qualities of Mister Chemical. If the balance is right and
there is separation between the good side and the darker impulses then clinical
trials begin and the lucky few will get permission to be marketed.
This few, this lucky few, this pharmacopeia is the result of
a huge effort. It is estimated that 95-97 % of all projects will end in
failure, 80% or more of all medicinal chemists (the cat herders) will never
work on a project that leads to a marketed drug. Some time ago it was often
quoted that 10000 compounds were synthesized for each drug that is marketed.
That number had grown substantially since the development of new synthetic
techniques. Try to imagine 10000 struggles to "just" put a phenyl
group there.
Try to consider the huge amount of data that is published
each day that goes into the hundreds of scientific journals covering every
aspect of this crazy world. All of the data combined is used to make the best
possible guesses as to which phenyl group should go where and what disease
should be treated in which way. It is a mind boggling pit of insanity to dive
into and expect that one will succeed.
So why do we do it? The answer is the same as the lottery:
to win, because the rewards of success greatly outweigh the insanity of the
small chance of attaining that success. For some of us it is also the
"because it is there" drive to do something unusual and to
potentially make a big difference in people's lives.
The biotech industrial training in Rajasthan is the modern answer
to the problem of this insanity, insofar as biotech is meant to mean small,
highly focused companies with a very small number of projects. The point being
that the individual drive of the people to make the individual projects a
success is supposed to develop them faster, give them a higher chance of
success or to fail faster and be cheaper doing so.
Why do I do this insane biotechnology courses? The answer
is because I can. Somehow the last dozen years in this industry have given me
the skills to understand that working for five to ten years on a project that
can fail tomorrow is fine. The uncertainty is substantial, but when it works
the benefits are enormous. Biotech is a business, and the only business I know
that has to invest so much money, for so long without any certainty at all of
any form of success. Which success stories should I quote to end this piece, to
show that biotech has a benefit through the madness: it could be many: insulin
for diabetics, cancer therapies that increase life expectancy, treatments for
HIV infection, a whole pharmacopeia of remedies that I hope that you will never
need but is designed to be there in case you do.
Contact
Us:
Dr. B. Lal Institute of Biotechnology
Add: 6-E, Malviya Industrial Area, Jaipur 302017
Ph.: +91 1412752240-41
Fax: 2752241
Mobile: 09829038177, 09829038377
Email: blalbiotech@gmail.com
institute@blalbiotech.com
Website: http://blalbiotech.com/
