Notas del episodio
A Himalayan lion watches a road cut through a valley he has known since cubhood. A biochemist climbs to meet him. Between them sits a question that decides which diseases get studied — and which are left behind.
Every medicine begins with a target. A lock in the body — an enzyme, a receptor, a gene. The key must fit. But the lock must be chosen first. And choosing is excluding.
Of every ninety molecules sent toward the clinic, nine arrive. The rest die in what the industry calls the Valley of Death. Meanwhile, the forests that gave us half of our anticancer drugs are thinning, and regulators move at speeds that leave whole nations waiting.
The Molecular Pipeline begins where every medicine begins: with a decision about what to study — and what to leave behind.
The forest was the first pharmacy.
Also includes moments of Erin's curiosity and empathy for the Himalayan lion and his visitor. And don't miss the extraordinary Dispatch sent by Dr Bilal Zafar on the move in the company of crickets.