Introduction to Drug Hunting (Coursera)

Offered by Novartis,
Introduction to Drug Hunting (Coursera)

This course introduces and summarizes the different steps of preclinical drug discovery, wrapping up with a brief description of the subsequent clinical trials and the importance of competitive intelligence in project strategy.  It provides a high-level overview for those interested in a more general understanding of the topic and forms the foundation for a more in-depth exploration of topics covered in other courses in this series.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Target audience: This course is suitable for life scientists, clinicians, and individuals from fields that support drug discovery (e.g., patents, finance, licensing, etc.) interested in learning more about the pharmaceutical/biotechnology sector. Advanced undergraduate coursework or practical familiarity/working knowledge in biological sciences and organic chemistry is recommended.
This course is part of the Drug Hunting: The Science of Making New Medicines Specialization.

Syllabus

Introduction to Drug Hunting, part 1
Welcome to the course. By the end of this course students will be able to: Describe at a general level the process of drug discovery and development. Explain how potential drug targets and molecules are identified and evaluated, including the importance of biological activity, pharmacokinetics, and safety. Recognize some of the potential preclinical and clinical hurdles a new drug candidate must overcome.

Introduction to Drug Hunting, part 2

Introduction to Drug Hunting, part 3

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Translating Basic Research into Research for Humans (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Translating Basic Research into Research for Humans (Coursera)

The first phase of translational research — known as “T1” — is the process of moving foundational scientific discoveries into possible approaches for real-world health applications. This course focuses on innovations in basic science discovery, including drug discovery and repurposing and animal studies, that lead to new methods of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention in highly controlled settings.

Jul 27th 2026
3 Weeks
Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Design and Conduct of Clinical Trials (Coursera)

In this course, you’ll learn how to design and carry out clinical trials. Each design choice has implications for the quality and validity of your results. This course provides you and your team with essential skills to evaluate options, make good design choices, and implement them within your trial. You’ll learn to control for bias, randomize participants, mask treatments and outcomes, identify errors, develop and test hypotheses, and define appropriate outcomes.

Jul 27th 2026
4 Weeks
Guidance to Keep Newborn Babies Safe and Healthy (Coursera) Coursera
University of Colorado System

Guidance to Keep Newborn Babies Safe and Healthy (Coursera)

In your previous 2 courses, you learned some medical interventions and skills to keep newborns healthy in the days and weeks after they have been born.  In this course, you will learn some key things that parents will need to do to keep their babies safe and healthy. The Guidance to Keep Newborn Babies Safe and Healthy Course will teach you best practices for how your baby will spend most of their day: eating, sleeping, and sometimes crying.

Jul 27th 2026
4 Weeks
Leadership for Cancer Informatics Research (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

Leadership for Cancer Informatics Research (Coursera)

Informatics research often requires multidisciplinary teams. This requires more flexibility to communicate with team members with distinct backgrounds. Furthermore, team members often have different research and career goals. This can present unique challenges in making sure that everyone is on the same page and cohesively working together. This course aims to provide research leaders with guidance about: How to effectively lead and support team members on informatics projects; How to perform informatics projects well; How to support informatics collaborators, mentees, and employees; How to better support diversity within your team; Tools that can help you perform informatics projects well

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks
International Travel Preparation, Safety, & Wellness (Coursera) Coursera
Johns Hopkins University

International Travel Preparation, Safety, & Wellness (Coursera)

Whether you've traveled before or not, living and working overseas can be challenging. Learn how best to prepare and make the most of your time internationally. This course will prepare you to work and live overseas. It explores the epidemiology of common morbidity and mortality among travelers and examines key prevention, safety, and travel medicine principles and services to contextualize risks and maintain wellness.

Aug 17th 2026
4 Weeks
Making Data Science Work for Clinical Reporting (Coursera) Coursera
Genentech

Making Data Science Work for Clinical Reporting (Coursera)

This course is aimed to demonstrate how principles and methods from data science can be applied in clinical reporting. By the end of the course, learners will understand what requirements there are in reporting clinical trials, and how they impact on how data science is used. The learner will see how they can work efficiently and effectively while still ensuring that they meet the needed standards.

Aug 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health (Coursera) Coursera
University of Geneva

Drugs, drug use, drug policy and health (Coursera)

This MOOC is the first of its kind, since it addresses critical issues related to drugs from a multidisciplinary, health and human rights-based approach. Throughout the course you will cover a range of questions including what are drugs and why they controlled? What are the benefits and harms of taking drugs? How public health policies can address drug use?

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Pharmacokinetics (Coursera) Coursera
Novartis

Pharmacokinetics (Coursera)

This course begins with a review of routes of administration, ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism, & excretion), and the use of in vivo drug concentration-time data to determine key pharmacokinetic parameters, like volume of distribution, half-life and clearance.  The course then emphasizes in vitro assays that allow rapid prediction of ADME and PK properties for evaluation of new compounds. 

Jul 27th 2026
3 Weeks
Fundamentals of Good Clinical Practice: Prep and Personnel (Coursera) Coursera
Novartis

Fundamentals of Good Clinical Practice: Prep and Personnel (Coursera)

Welcome to 'Fundamentals of Good Clinical Practice: Prep and Personnel'! This course is designed to introduce you to preparing for a clinical trial. This is Course Two in the Clinical Trial Teams series - the first course 'Introduction to Good Clinical Practice' provides background on what clinical trials are as well as the basic principles and practices of GCP. If you are new to the world of clinical research, we suggest starting your journey with Course One.

Jul 27th 2026
3 Weeks
Case Studies in Personalized Medicine (Coursera) Coursera
Vanderbilt University

Case Studies in Personalized Medicine (Coursera)

Learn how advances in biomedicine hold the potential to revolutionize drug development, drug treatments, and disease prevention: where are we now, and what does the future hold? This course will present short primers in genetics and mechanisms underlying variability in drug responses. A series of case studies will be used to illustrate principles of how genetics are being brought to bear on refining diagnoses and on personalizing treatment in rare and common diseases. The ethical and operational issues around how to implement large scale genomic sequencing in clinical practice will be addressed.

Aug 17th 2026
5-12 Weeks