This symposium will examine some of the reasons that promising lead compounds fail to become drugs and will present novel approaches to address the challenges of developing new pharmaceuticals. Three distinguished speakers will describe how they have developed innovative approaches to identifying the next generation of drugs, developed new models for educating and training the next generation of pharmaceutical scientists, and changed the paradigm for therapeutics discovery by working in partnership across sectors and disciplines. Through this symposium, participants will learn of changing paradigms for both the technical and human resource aspects of pharmaceutical discovery and development and hear perspectives on how best to convert rapidly developing basic biological findings into the medicines of the future.