MEDI Announces 2008 Division Awards

The recipients of the 2008 ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry awards have been selected.

The Robert M. Scarborough Memorial Award will be awarded to Arun Ghosh, professor of chemistry and medicinal chemistry at Purdue University. The award recognizes scientists under the age of 50 who have demonstrated success in the discovery of pharmaceutical entities and/or have accrued a substantial body of significant research contributions in medicinal chemistry.

Ghosh was cited for his contributions to structure-based design of HIV protease inhibitors. He introduced a natural product derivative as a key feature of darunavir (Prestiza), a compound approved in 2006 for treatment of HIV infections that are resistant to first-generation protease inhibitors. This modification contributed to the ability of the compound to treat HIV-1 that has developed resistance to other protease inhibitors. He will receive a $4,000 honorarium and a plaque during the fall ACS national meeting in Philadelphia.

Kevin J. Duffy, a group manager at GlaxoSmithKline, will receive the David W. Robertson Memorial Award, which recognizes scientists under the age of 40 who have made seminal contributions to the discovery of novel therapeutic agents or who have made substantial contributions to and discoveries in medicinal chemistry.

Duffy is being recognized for his role in the discovery and development of eltrombopag (Promacta), an orally active small-molecule thrombopoietin mimetic, for the treatment of chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. In clinical studies, eltrombopag has been shown to stimulate cells in the bone marrow to produce blood platelets. Duffy will receive a $1,000 honorarium and a plaque during the fall ACS national meeting in Philadelphia.

The Division of Medicinal Chemistry Award will go to Duane D. Miller, Harriett S. Van Vleet Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and associate dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. The award is given every two years to a scientist or team of scientists with a substantial record of contributions to the field of medicinal chemistry in research, mentorship, and service to the discipline.

Miller is being recognized for his research on the stereochemistry of several different drug-receptor interactions and, more recently, selective androgen receptor modulators. He held positions in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He will receive a plaque at the 2008 National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh in June.