My odyssey as a multidisciplinary scientist and peptide drug hunter began 50 years ago when I arrived at the University of Arizona as a graduate student to work with Professor Victor J. Hruby. From the first day unto this day, it has been nothing less than an extraordinary experience that began with inspiration by the greatest mentor that I’ve ever had. After nearly four decades in drug discovery with the scope of four major pharma (Upjohn, Parke-Davis, Pfizer and Merck) and two biotech (Ariad and Aileron), it was evident to me that the world of peptide drug hunters needed an organization that was entirely dedicated to it and in mid-2023 I founded the Peptide Drug Hunting Consortium (PDHC) to make it happen. It was conceptualized during the last few weeks of my days at Merck after having established and led an internal, cross-site and multidisciplinary entity that was dubbed the Peptide Drug Hunter Network. It was a stunning success and provided me the incentive to create a worldwide consortium. I recruited a great PDHC Leadership Team and together built a top-class PDHC Entrepreneurial Advisory Board, established an Entrepreneurial Business Network, a Peptide Drug Hunter Network website (peptidedrughunting.org), a PDHC LinkedIn, and a PDHC Chronicle Peptide Drug Hunting of which I am Editor-in-Chief and work with Charlies Johannes and Ved Srivastava as Executive Editors as well as my sons, Thomas and Jonathon, who are Managing Editors, a PDHC Editorial Team, and both Danielle Molinari and Jeffrey Geniesse who enable our outstanding publications to be shared with the world. I welcome all to visit the PDHC website and engage with us!
Some say that we are seeing nowadays the golden years of peptide science, technology and medicine. I would agree and state that I’m also very pleased to see what has happened over the past two decades which has especially contributed to the highest level of peptide drug hunting that the world has ever seen. Many biotechs and pharma deserve great credit to our peptide drug hunting enterprise, and so do venture capital and other funding institutions as well as both contract R&D organizations and service providers. Of course, it has been now more than 60 years of academic research throughout the world, including the pioneering chemistry, biology, and entrepreneurism that Professor Hruby contributed so enthusiastically to during his tenure at the University of Arizona. It is with mirroring what I witnessed as a graduate student that I’ll share my vision of peptide drug hunting in terms of entrepreneurial science and technology, and what we are witnessing now as a major force that is empowering breakthrough medicines in which peptide modalities will be key drivers for promising future drugs as well as growth and impact in global therapeutics market.