Jotham Coe
Research Fellow, Medicinal Chemistry, Neuroscience

Pfizer Global Research & Development, Groton, CT

"Rigor is important in science, and it takes time and commitment to make discoveries happen - you can't just dabble in it."

Research Fellow Jotham Coe is a medicinal chemist in the Neuroscience Department of Pfizer Global Research and Development in Groton, CT, where he works on approaches for the treatment of depression, schizophrenia, ADHD and addiction.

Of course trial and error and countless hours in the lab led to Chantix^TM. But that's only a small part of it. His research team formed a hypothesis, set project goals, used intelligent design and molecular modification, and employed plain old hard work. Certainly luck and persistence played a key role. Working with the project team, he discovered varenicline in 1997, the active ingredient in Chantix. Nine years later, he saw the fruits of his labor - Chantix was approved by the FDA and launched in 2006. For his efforts, he received the Pfizer Global R&D Achievement Award, The Award for Scientific Excellence in Chemistry and the W.E. Upjohn Award for Innovation.

Prior to joining Neuroscience, Jotham worked for six years in the oncology discovery area, studying potential treatments for mutational changes in cancer etiology, hormone regulation of cancer growth, and multidrug resistance to chemotherapy.

Jotham credits his Harvard College second year organic chemistry Professor William von E. Doering for taking science out of the text book and "making it real."

"It was the first time in my life that science became tangible, tactical, visual and three-dimensional," says Jotham. By that summer, he was working in a pharmaceutical lab, making molecules and improving methodologies. One day there he discovered a patentable assay in his first hour on a project.

He earned his degree in chemistry from Harvard College in 1981. After two years at SISA Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Jotham entered the laboratories of William R. Roush at MIT, and received his PhD degree in organic chemistry in 1988.

While away from work, he enjoys sports and the outdoors-having crisscrossed the country on a motorcycle and canoed through northern Canada as a teenager.