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Textbook: Principles of Pharmacology: The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy 4th Edition.
This book is most useful for the initial section of the course and for reference later on. We have traditionally made the book available at the library but the easiest way to access it for this course is to rent it (if you are staying in the field you might want to buy a copy).
Rental is currently $33.51 for the semester at Amazon.
Other Reading Materials. Other reading materials will be assigned from time to time. Typically these will be published research or white papers. If these are in the public domain they will be posted on the open part of our web site. If they are copyrighted they will be made available to enrolled students via the "Course Materials" section of the site.
Some Other Resources
September 1, 2025 - Welcome to PPDD 2025. We look forward to seeing you in person on September 4th!
Septembter 14, 2025 - Sorger Lecture 3 notes posted and Sorger Lecture 2 notes updated (post presentation)
Stan Finkelstein, MD (course co-director) is a Senior Research Scientist in MIT's Institute for Data, Systems and Society in the Schwarzman College of Computing and Associate Professor of Medicine at HMS and founding director of the MD/MBA joint degree program with Harvard Business School. His research focuses on the business-government interface, medical technology, cost-effectiveness and third-party reimbursement.
Peter Sorger, PhD (course co-director) is a Professor in the Dept. of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and founding Head of the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science. He was previously on the MIT faculty as professor of Biology and Biological Engineering. Sorger's research focuses on mammalian signal transduction, cancer and its treatment.
Carlo Duffy (TA) is a PhD candidate at MIT's Institute for Data, Systems and Society. His research uses observational data and health policy insights to understand Medicare providers. Carlo is advised by Drs. Stan Finkelstein and Roy Welsch.
Dan Freeman (TA) is a PhD student in Biology & Biomedical Sciences at HMS. His research focus on multimodal applications in digital pathology. Dan is advised by Dr. Peter Sorger. He is also a founder of terraFlow, a startup biotechnology company that provides AI-powered methods for analyzing flow cytometry data.
Joshua Apgar, PhD, a former MIT graduate student, was Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Applied Biomath, a startup company in Concord MA that is now part of Certara.
Birgit Schoeberl, PhD, a former MIT postdoc, is Global Head of Modeling and Simulation and PK Sciences at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge MA.
Ariel Stern, PhD was formerly at Harvard Business School and is now the Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the Hasso Plattner Institute in the University of Potsdam Germany.
Elliott Antman, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA and a a Senior Investigator in the Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) Study Group.
Charles Cooney, PhD is a Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at MIT and a founder of PPDD.
GK Raju, PhD is Executive Director of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Initiatives at the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation.
George Demetri, MD is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Mike Rosenblatt, MD is Cheif Medical Officer (CMO) of Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge MA; he was previously CMO of Merck, Dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, and a Professor at Harvard Medical School.
Brian Alexander, MD, MPH is Chief Medical Officer of Foundation Medicine in Cambridge MA; he is an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
John Young, PhD, is the Global Head Infectious Diseases and Vice President at Roche.
Dan H. Barouch, MD, PhD is the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at BIDMC
Sumit Khedekar is a Managing Director at Credit Suisse Securities and expert in biotech financing.
Nicole LeBoeuf, MD, MPH is Clinical Director of the Center for Cutaneous Oncology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital.
PPDD was established three decades ago by course founding directors: Thomas J. Allen, Charles L. Cooney, G. K. Raju, Anthony Sinskey all of whom are still active as MIT Faculty. It has been taught continuously
Updated on 09/14/2025.
The interactive component of this course is established through insightful questions and critical thinking of students taking the course. It is therefore crucial that you prepare for class and are ready to ask insightful questions on the topic of each session. Students are required to attend in-person class sessions, unless there exist medical/circumstantial reasons (e.g. family emergency, medical conditions) approved by the instructors.
In the case of remote lectures replacing in-person sessions, students will be notified ahead of time by instructor or TAs. In a remote lecture, students are required to have their cameras on throughout the sessions and use their first and last names as their identifier in Zoom (unless internet logistics precludes that). Questions are encouraged at all times during the session but are essential in the Q&A part of each class.
Continued development of this course, including this website, is made possible by a generous gift from the Henri and Belinda Termeer Program in Systems Pharmacology.
Last updated 09/14/2025
PPDD is returning in Fall semester 2025! Please join us for another semester of exciting learning inside and outside of the classroom Wednesdays 3-6pm in MIT room 4-237.
PPDD is a joint MIT-Harvard course listed in multiple departments under the following numbers: BCMP230/ 7.547J/ 15.136J/ 10.547J/ HST.920J/ IDS.620J. We also welcome students from outside of Harvard or MIT.
Course Directors: Stan N. Finkelstein and Peter K. Sorger
This is the official site for the course and for submitting reports and other materials. Because we have students from so many schools, we do not use Canvas (which is institution-specific).
PPDD was one of the earliest courses focused on the practice of contemporary drug discovery. It has been updated repeatedly and is thoroughly revamped for the 2020 academic year. PPDD is taught by MIT and Harvard Faculty and by guest experts from the pharma and biotech industries, finance, and government agencies. The course emphasizes a high level of student participation.
Course Founding Directors: Thomas J. Allen, Charles L. Cooney, G. K. Raju, Anthony Sinskey
PPDD is suitable for individuals with a wide variety of backgrounds and interests from biology to engineering, business and medicine. We welcome both graduates and undergraduate students. You should expect some of the materials to be very familiar and others to be entirely foreign (e.g. finance if you are medical student). This replicates real world work environments and we expect to students with complementary skills to work together in interdisciplinary teams.
Course Description. Introduction to and critical assessment of the concepts, technologies and practical challenges of developing a new medicine and bringing it to market. Pharmacology fundamentals, preclinical drug discovery, clinical trials, manufacturing and regulatory issues, as well as financing and marketing are discussed for small molecule, biologic and cellular therapies. Faculty from MIT, Harvard and industry present introductory and topic-specific lectures (case studies) and students engage in weekly news updates and collaborative research projects. The course uses a medical, economic and societal issues associated with drug development now and in the future.
Wednesdays 3-6pm. MIT room 4-237.
Prerequisite: Instructor permission. No particular course is required. Knowledge of basic biology, biomedicine or bioengineering, and familiarity with basic economic principles will be helpful but not necessary for the course.
Note on class participation: The interactive component of this course is established through insightful questions and critical thinking of students taking the course. It is therefore critical that you prepare for class and are ready to ask insightful questions on the topic of each session. Questions are encouraged throughout the session but are essential in the Q&A part of each class. Class participation is a key component in determining the final grade.
Learn about Course Logistics
Meet this year's Teaching Team
Access Course Materials
Concluding Fall 2023 semester with a group dinner at Za Pizza in Cambridge. Best of luck to our 2023 students for their future endeavors!
We wrapped up the 2022 Fall semester with a dinner at Za Pizza in Cambridge. A small group of us is pictured below.
