Pharmaceutical Candidate Optimization
“Find the right molecule. Enable the clinical plan.” It's a deceptively simple mission statement for the work performed by the Pharmaceutical Candidate Optimization group.
At Bristol-Myers Squibb we excel at finding highly potent, highly selective drugs that work against our chosen target. But since there are limitations inherent in every molecule, our purpose is to answer questions about the potential side effects of drugs, their pharmaceutical acceptability and their drug metabolism characteristics early in the development process. This allows discovery scientists to make appropriate trade-offs between a drug’s attributes and its liabilities, refine the compounds and come up with the best quality products for development.
Early indicators of quality — such as preclinical success rates of about 80 percent when moving compounds from discovery to first-in-human trials (compared to the industry average of about 70 percent) — are extremely encouraging.
We possess an extraordinary array of technology and are consistently asked to work through difficult scientific issues. Often, these studies reveal a new facet of nature which hasn’t previously been understood. More importantly, the work we do drives programs ahead — ultimately to become effective medicines.
Scientists in this group span the disciplines of Analytical Chemistry, Bioanalytical Chemistry, Drug Metabolism, Pharmaceutics and Toxicology. Over the years, work in these areas has become increasingly investigative and oriented toward problem solving. We typically hire excellent scientists who are interested in working on a variety of different challenges — usually in teams comprising many diverse disciplines.