Lecture 1: Introduction

Question 1

How old is the pharmaceutical Industry

Answer 1

60 years old

Question 2

What was the estimated value of the industry by mid 1980’s

Answer 2

100 billion

Question 3

How many pharmaceutical companies are there today?

Answer 3

> 10000

Question 4

How many companies are international players?

Answer 4

~ 100

Question 5

How many substances are produced for routine use in medicine

Answer 5

5000

Question 6

Name the 4 drugs that was used before the 20th century.

Answer 6

Digitalis
Quinine
Ipecacuanha
Mercury

Question 7

What is Digitalis?

Answer 7

Digitalis
(extracted from foxglove),
known to stimulate heart muscle,
was used to treat heart conditions.

Question 8

What is Quinine?

Answer 8

Quinine
(extracted from Cinchona plants)
used to treat malaria.

Question 9

What is Ipecacuanha?

Answer 9

Ipecacuanha
(extracted from Cephaelis plants)
used to treat dysentery

Question 10

What is Mercury?

Answer 10

Mercury
(a heavy metal) used to treat syphilis

Question 11

What led to the formation of the first pharmaceutical companies in the late 1800’s?

Answer 11

The successful synthesis of various artificial dyes, which proved to be therapeutically useful

Question 12

What company synthesised Aspirin and in what year?

Answer 12

Bayer
1895

Question 13

What happened in the 1930’s?

Answer 13

discovery and chemical synthesis of the antimicrobial sulpha drugs (derived from the red dye prontosil rubrum) that the pharmaceutical industry began to develop in earnest.

Question 14

What are sulpha drugs derived from?

Answer 14

red dye prontosil rubrum

Question 15

When did large scale industrial production of insulin begin?

Answer 15

1930’s

Question 16

When was insulin first therapeutically used?

Answer 16

1920’s

Question 17

What occured in the 1940’s?

Answer 17

the commencement of industrial scale penicillin manufacture and it was around this time that many of the current leading pharmaceutical companies were founded including;
1. Eli Lilly
2. Wellcome
3. Glaxo
4. Roche

Question 18

When was the term Biopharmaceutical first used?

Answer 18

1980’s

Question 19

What was the term biopharmaceutical first used to describe?

Answer 19

A class of therapeutic proteins produced by modern biotechnological techniques, specifically via genetic engineering or, in the case of monoclonal antibodies, by hybridoma technology.

Question 20

What does the term Biopharmaceutical encompass?

Answer 20

Proteins
Nucleic acids
Whole cell based products

Question 21

What are the 3 best known pharmaceutical companies?

Answer 21

Amgen
Biogen
Genentech

Question 22

When was Amgen founded?

Answer 22

1980’s

Question 23

What was Amgen founded as?

Answer 23

AMgen
(Applied Molecular Genetics)

Question 24

How many people does Amgen now employ?

Answer 24

19,000
Making it one of the largest dedicated biopharmaceutical companies in existence

Question 25

What is the revenue of Amgen?

Answer 25

~ $23 billion

Question 26

Where is Amgen’s headquarters?

Answer 26

Thousand Oaks, California

Question 27

When was Biogen founded?

Answer 27

Geneva, Switzerland 1978