How the antihypertensive losartan was discovered

Based on interviews and publications, this case study is a history of how DuPont scientists discovered losartan, the first angiotensin II receptor antagonist. Essential aspects of the story include: i) the discovery occurred at a young and inexperienced pharmaceutical business; ii) three bench scientists had recently graduated from PhD programmes and only the fourth had any industrial research experience; iii) pivotal to its success was the support and risk-taking of the highly experienced and recently hired head of pharmaceutical research; iv) a timely patent issued to Takeda Chemical Industries suggested a new line of research; v) a mistake made by an inexperienced pharmacologist yielded pivotal information; vi) the bench scientists were given the freedom to explore while being supported by research managers; vii) luck favoured the scientists in losartan's subreceptor-binding and metabolite; and viii) the marketing group insisted that losartan not be developed until Merck expressed an interest in the drug candidate. Today, losartan is a multibillion dollar drug.