The Final Four of Pharmaceuticals: Basketball Championships Can Teach Us About Drug Development

Transcript generated by AI.

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence! Monday Minute radio show hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by Encore Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence!

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 0:30

So Dr. Michael Koren wanted to talk about the big dance of course, the Final Four and the National Basketball Championship for the NCAA this evening, right, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:41

Yeah, it's a big, big day, particularly for Gator fans. I have a lot of them in my life and they're super excited.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 0:48

Yeah, no, this is very exciting. We haven't had this since the Billy Donovan era, and so very exciting. Gator basketball, of course. Florida versus Houston tonight on a national stage, and it's a big, big, big game. Right, I mean, we go through this whole process of March Madness, which ironically ends in April, but it all comes down to this, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:09

It does and it kind of reminds me of my industry a little bit.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:12

Kevin because in my industry you start out the beginning of the season with thousands of ideas in different molecules that will solve a problem, whether it's cholesterol problems or arthritis or obesity, whatever the case may be and then you go through this process of first doing preclinical studies and you eliminate a lot of people that way, or a lot of molecules that way, and then you go to the next stages and then ultimately get to these big phase three studies, which is kind of like the final four, and we like to let patients know they can be part of the big dance by participating in the final four. You know that the people that are at that late stage, or the, I should say, the molecular entities at that late stage, are the best and the brightest and the most likely to succeed and we determine who is the champion, who ultimately gets to the market.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:02

So, it's kind of a cool concept when you think about it.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 2:05

Yeah, I think back to my participating in some studies with ENCORE Research Group and you can participate in a stage one trial right, which would be the. I guess that would be the first round, or maybe even the play-in round on Tuesday nights or something, but then over time right, you can be there at the very end when the drug might actually get approved over the near term.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:27

Exactly, and again, once a medicine or it doesn't have to be a drug, by the way, it could be a device or any medical technology. But once you get to that later phase, we have more opportunities for people, because the later phases actually have more slots for participants and you have a pretty good assurance that it's already been scrutinized. So you get to crown the champion and the risks are actually pretty limited, and we're constantly doing things to reduce the risks along the way.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 2:55

Yeah, because if you participate in a stage two or stage three trial obviously even a layman like myself would know that means somebody has already completed stage one, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:05

Correct and, of course, even before stage one, there's an incredible amount of work done for safety in animal models and test tube models and using artificial intelligence these days. So again, literally, we start out with 10,000 candidate molecules and before we even touch a human being, you eliminate over 9,000 of them. And then you quickly eliminate more. So in the late stages, we're truly looking at the final four.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 3:30

Well, there's some great opportunities right here locally in Northeast Florida and here in St. Augustine and St. Johns County to participate in leading edge medical research clinical trials that could tie specifically to an issue that you are struggling with. There's so many of them that we're not going to name all of them, although I'll ask Dr. Koren maybe to just kind of highlight one study that you're currently recruiting for, just to kind of plant a bug in our listeners' ears.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:54

We're doing a lot of work in heart failure right now, so if people have been diagnosed with heart failure, give us a call. There may be something we can help you with. Of course, we do a lot in cholesterol, lipoprotein(a), obesity, fatty liver disease, on and on and on. Just check out the website. You can see all the different things that are working in it.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 4:12

Yeah, go to EncoreDocs. com. Encoredocs. com to get a complete listing and also to connect with them. Talk with somebody face-to-face or by phone at least to learn what opportunities are out there. You can do that easily at 904-730-0166. That number ENCORE Research Group right here in St. John's County in Northeast Florida, 904-730-0166. And before we let you go, a really good resource for good information about your health status and about just health issues and research is MedEvidence. com, Right doctor?

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:47

It is. Yeah, I'm actually super excited about it because we're getting more and more traction each day. But it's a completely different way to consume medical information. It's a way where two physicians typically but it doesn't have to be two physicians necessarily are discussing an issue and you glean insights through the discussion. So no one's telling you, oh, this is the greatest thing in the world or this is the worst thing in the world, which is what you get on the internet. We're telling you about all the intricacies of any particular medical area and how you can use that knowledge to help yourself and your family. So check it out, I think you'll like it.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 5:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 5:22

Once again, that's MedEvidence. com. The truth behind the data is just a great resource data available in various formats and very intuitive MedEvidence. com. Well, Dr. Koren, before I let you go, prediction who's going to win the big basketball game tonight.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:38

The best team will win, Kevin. It's always the case.

Kevin Geddings, WSOS: 5:41

All right, thanks, doc, we appreciate you.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:44

You bet All right Take care.

Announcer: 5:46

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