Compound Discovery

A number of years ago, a small team working in Lilly's U.K. Erl Wood, England, research facility set out to find a better therapy for people suffering from schizophrenia. The antipsychotics of that time had limited efficacy against symptoms of the disease and frequently produced side effects, particularly movement disorder related side effects, nearly as unpleasant as those symptoms. The team, led by Dr. Jiban Chakrabarti, was determined to discover a drug which, when compared to the leading treatment of the time, had equivilant or better efficacy against disease symptoms and had an improved safety profile. Team members Dr. Chakrabarti, David Tupper and Terry Hotten synthesized a new molecule named olanzapine.