MMV ESAC member Dennis Smith recognized by the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics
Dr Smith received the award for his contribution to drug discovery
Dennis Smith, a key drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) expert on MMV’s Expert Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC), was given the Distinguished Accomplishments in Drug Discovery and Development Award by the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX).
The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of drug discovery and development, was presented at the ISSX Annual Meeting. Dr Smith was honoured for his pioneering work in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), which has helped advance the development of new drugs for a range of diseases.
‘I am delighted to receive this award and express my sincere thanks to ISSX’, Dr Smith said.
Since leaving the pharmaceutical industry, Dr Smith has spent more than 10 years, in part, as a key contributor to many MMV projects. He has helped design and optimize compounds for efficacy and safety, contributing to MMV’s work at the cutting edge of drug metabolism research. In one recent example, he has contributed to a new strategy to allow MMV to discover drugs that can be given once a month to protect children from malaria.
Dr Smith spent over 30 years working in drug discovery and development in the pharmaceutical industry, notably at Fisons and then Pfizer. Although primarily a DMPK specialist, he has covered topics from drug safety to industry productivity in over 150 publications. Throughout his career, he contributed significantly to shaping the drug discovery field through his expertise in pharmacokinetics, enzymology, physicochemistry and more. His work has helped embed many of the practices now seen as routine into the drug discovery and development process. One of these is the use of unbound free drug principles to align pharmacology with pharmacokinetics.
‘We’re delighted to see Dennis receiving due recognition for his drug discovery work,’ said Dr Paul Willis, Interim Head of Discovery at MMV. ‘In particular, his contributions to MMV are helping us to pioneer new ways to protect children, who are the most at risk from malaria.’