Systematizing Serendipity for Cardiovascular Drug Discovery
Peter J. Schlueter, Randall Theodore Peterson · Circulation · 2009
Serendipity has played a significant role throughout thehistory of drug discovery in general and, in particular, throughout the history of cardiovascular medicine. The anti-coagulant properties of dicoumarol were discovered after farmers observed that their cattle were dying of internal hemorrhaging after feeding on rotting sweet clover,1 and digitoxin was identified when the condition of a patient suffering from congestive heart failure dramatically improved after being given an herbal remedy containing extracts of the foxglove plant.2 In fact, many of the most effective pharma-cological agents in use today arose through serendipity. Despite the historical role of serendipity in drug discovery, it is clear that such events occur too rarely to be counted on as consistent sources of future drug discovery. Over the past 3 decades, the standard drug discovery paradigm has shifted more and more toward a target-based approach, in which