Word: vertex
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Vertex scientists solved the structure in 1992 (see picture below) and began to explore several potential sites for artificial blockage, using supercomputers to suggest possible "keys" for the HIV "lock." In practice, the computer's guess is often far from perfect, but computers can help bench-top scientists refine their search for the molecule with the perfect...
...area of computational chemistry," explains Lynne H. Brum, Vertex's vice president of corporate communications. "It helps us understand which chemical compounds [will be successful] on the bench...
...Vertex scientists attacked the HIV protease with different drug candidates, using combinatorial chemistry to produce thousands of subtle variations of the computer's best guess. Combinatorial chemistry, explains Harvard Professor of Chemistry Gregory L. Verdine, "is a technology that allows one to make thousands to millions of organic compounds of defined structures in a very rapid period of time...
...says Brum, Vertex had identified a likely anti-AIDS drug candidate--code-named VX-478--and signed an $42 million agreement with Glaxo-Wellcome to market and develop the compound under the brand name Amprenavir. Clinical trials began in February, 1995, and approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected...
Three blocks away from Vertex, at 640 Memorial Drive, another new pharmaceutical company is developing tools and techniques that are redefining the way the industry searches for drugs...