Research and discovery: The difficult we do immediately—The impossible takes only a little longer

In this section, we have provided readers, including practitioners, students, and other interested parties, with perspectives on biotechnology, drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and pharmacology. Coverage of such an important business and research and development sector, so complicated, so expansive, and so expensive, can only be superficial in a treatise of any size. Leading references cited herein provide starting points for deeper dives. Other sections in this book cover key aspects of undergraduate, graduate, and professional training for careers in biomedical research and development. The final section addresses chemical development, manufacturing, and the path toward commercialization. Whether you are a clinician, a designer, an enzymologist, an organic chemist, a pharmacist, or a systems engineer, by now you should have gotten the picture that the healthcare sector and the biotech/pharma industry have jobs for you. If drugs are your medicines of choice to develop, remember that you must move from ideas into basic research, through discovery, and you must survive the rigors of preclinical and clinical development. Altogether you should expect 10+ year timelines. Some practitioners—even if they are true artisans—never see the fruits of their labors marketed during their lifetimes, primarily because of high rates of attrition. Even if they haven’t seen a drug to market, no doubt they have given the next drug hunter a head start. So many lives depend on us making the impossible possible. Unless we find a means to deal with the scourges of old age, like Alzheimer disease, it has been said that nations including the United States could struggle with bankruptcy by mid-century. We are depending on you to make a difference, discovering new affordable “billion dollar drugs” that prolong countless lives. Just one life saved is a miracle. Do it from an academic perch, advancing our basic understanding of disease and molecular mechanisms and pathways. Do it from a start-up venture as a founder or the first employee, making something out of nothing, the definition of an entrepreneur. Do it from an organic chemistry lab, designing and synthesizing novel blockbusters. Do it from a manufacturing plant. But please do it—we are counting on you!