The Society for Medicines Research believe that outstanding contributions, achievements and inventions in the world of drug discovery and development should be recognised and celebrated. To achieve this goal the SMR instigated its own symbol of recognition, the SMR Award for Drug Discovery. The Award has been presented every two years for over twenty years. Recipients are individual scientists, or teams of scientists, duly acknowledged for their contribution by the scientific community. The multidisciplinary nature of the achievement is inherent in this award. With members from all disciplines of drug research, we are proud to recognise the successes of others in order to help the individuals and their host institution gain the reward and acclaim they deserve from within the pharmaceutical world. There are still very few prizes of this kind in the drug discovery area and we believe that the multidisciplinary nature of the SMR adds to the recognition status of this award, making it significantly different from those awards that recognise achievements within a single discipline. Until 2001, the Award recognised only those contributions emanating from within the UK. With increasing globalisation of R&D and the SMR increasing its popularity throughout the world by attracting international speakers at scientific meetings, and through the broadcasting of archive web-casts of its meetings, this UK-only position was believed to be unsustainable. Thus, beginning in 2003, the Award was made open to non-UK scientists.

The 2003 SMR Award for Drug Discovery was presented to Dr Juerg Zimmermann, Dr Elisabeth Buchdunger, Dr Ulrike Pfaar, Dr Peter Graf, Dr John Ford and Dr Renaud Capdeville for their contribution to the successful discovery and development of Glivec (Imatinib) a selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor introduced as a safe treatment for chronic myeloid leukaemia

Past winners of the award:

• 1983 Mr Peter Doyle (Beecham) Augmentin 

• 1985 Dr David Jack (Glaxo) Salbutamol 

• 1987 Prof John Stenlake (University of Strathclyde) Atracurium

• 1989 Prof Sir James Black, in association with Dr Albert Crowther & Prof Robin Ganellin (ICI and SK&F) Beta-blockers and H2 antagonists

• 1991 Drs Dutta, Furr and Hutchinson (ICI) Zoladex

• 1993 Dr Ken Richardson (Pfizer) Fluconazole 

• 1995 Prof Pat Humphrey (Glaxo) Sumatriptan 

• 1997 Drs Duncan, Redshaw and Roberts (Roche) Saquinavir 

• 1999 Dr David Tupper, Mr Terence Hotten and Dr Nicholas Moore (Eli Lilly) Olanzapine 

• 2001 Dr Michael Cawthorne, Dr Stephen Smith, Dr Barrie Cantello, Mr Richard Hindley and Dr David Haigh (GlaxoSmithKline) Rosiglitazone (Avandia)

• 2003 Dr Juerg Zimmermann, Dr Elisabeth Buchdunger, Dr Ulrike Pfaar, Dr Peter Graf, Dr John Ford and Dr Renaud Capdeville (Novartis) Glivec (imatinib)

Click here for further guidelines on nominations
Click here for a nomination form