Developing a new drug used to take at least 15 years

Until 2020 developing a new drug took at least 15 years.

You may listen to this programme NOW on Demand on the BBC Discovery Page and is available until Tuesday the 30th of August. It will also be broadcast on Sunday the 28th of August in Phuket at 8:30 AM on 91.5 FM and 102.5 FM and Online via the Internet radio portals.

Scientists by and large competed with each other were somewhat secretive about their research and only shared their data once publication was secured.

The press and developing a new drug

The public and the press had no interest in the various early phases of clinical trials. An incremental scientific step possibly on the road to somewhere was simply not newsworthy.

Face masks were the preserves of hypochondriacs in the Far East, with no scientific evidence base on their use.

Now the findings of the research are published as soon as they are ready.

Often they are openly discussed on social media before they have been peer-reviewed.

The speed of research, a collaboration between science and industry, and public perception of science are areas that have undergone incredible and likely permanent change.

Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Health at Edinburgh University hears from scientists in a variety of fields, whose working lives and practices have been affected, in some cases revolutionised by the pandemic.

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