Question

You are considering accepting a job working in an oncology research center. The work that you will be doing is to insert a gene of an immunotoxin called Denileukin Diftitox derived from the Diphteria toxin into an adenovirus to have a way to see if the adenovirus can deliver the toxin to malignant cells for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) . In the space that follows, walk me through your risk assessment, and decide whether you will accept this position or not.

Answer 1

Drug discovery is the management of risk. Boarding on a new drug discovery plan can be the start of a voyage that may last well over 12 years with a lot of investment. However, more than 99 % of all drug discovery projects never gets approval.

The reasons for failure

• Wrong choice of target via the inability to find suitable lead compounds to
• Unexpected toxicity or
• Lack of efficacy in clinical trials.
• Repeated strategy changes
• Changes in drug legislation and criteria or conditions for regulatory approval,
• Successful competitor
• Weak intellectual property.

The exposure to bacterial toxin, viral vector and cancer cell line may be harmful if not used wisely.

However, the job in oncology research center is challenging. Such a job will give experience and exposure to various research facilities and hand-on-experience to various cell culture techniques.

Thus, the job can be accepted.