[anymouse]

As the compound is already patented, her team will probably have to design something slightly different to be able to patent it as a new drug.

Taxol, developed by U.S. National Cancer Institute researchers and manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1993, had annual sales of $1.6 billion at its peak in 2000.

Or they can license the patented drug to let Bristol-Myers Squibb recover their investment and let this breakthrough treatment get throught the FDA much quicker and out to cancer patients years earlier, thus saving many lives that otherwise would be lost waiting for a new non-patented version to be developed and run through the FDA trials.

I'll defer to the scientists on what is best for the patient, but this just sounds like greed getting in the way of good medicine. (Not that I don't suspect that Reuters is spining this to make bigPharm look bad.)

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

ping.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

What works on animal cells doesn't always work on human cells. But it could.

[AntiGuv]

FutureTechPing!

An emergent technologies list covering biomedical research, fusion power, nanotech, AI robotics, and other related fields. FReepmail to join or drop.

[Disambiguator]

There was a movie about a similar scenario.

[GBA]

Interesting. I wonder how many of science's greatest discoveries were "accidents". Assuming it proves to be safe and effective, I hope this gets on a fast track through whatever route they take it and it gets to patients quickly.

[anymouse]

Medical science research ping.

[Kirkwood]

I don't see how it can be patented anyway now that it has been described in print. You can't patent something that is already in the public domain.

[Grut]

Or they can license the patented drug to let Bristol-Myers Squibb recover their investment...

Bristol-Myers Squibb doesn't necessarily have anything to do with this drug. The report rather confusingly mentions Taxol, which BMS makes, but the drug in question here is "a compound called a PPAR-gamma modulator," which is something else.

That said, it's always useful to remember that "may" means "may not" and so far the cure for cancer's been discovered every two months for the last twenty years.

[spanalot]

WOOHOOO

2nd cure for cancer in a month - wheres my smokes!

[Egon]

"The co-author on my paper said,' Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?' I said 'Oh', and took a closer look."

Classic.

[em2vn]

"........they have discovered a new way to attack tumors that have learned how to evade existing drugs."
Does this refer to tumors already in a person or is it talking about the ones formed initially?
How would a tumor develop a resistence to a cancer treatment unless the cancer had been previously exposed to the drug. If that's the case, cancer would have to be a disease that's transmitted from person to person.

[diamond6]

bttt

[rambo316]

A question for all my fellow Freepers: After reading this article about finding a cure for Cancer, the question just popped into my head, being a cancer survivor myself also my wife has worked for an Oncologist for 14 years and I just asked her. In these tests, how do they give the mice the different forms of Cancer? My wife could not answer the question and she told me to drop it because she did not want to get freaked out.

[narby]

cancer cells eventually evolve mechanisms to pump out the drugs

You'd best take that sentence out. Believing that cells evolve is religion.

[Jotmo]

Some time ago, someone posted a link to an animation of the internal workings of a cell. It was absolutely fascinating.

I didn't bookmark it, and I cannot find it. Anyone help me out?

[Jotmo]

Some time ago, someone posted a link to an animation of the internal workings of a cell. It was absolutely fascinating.

I didn't bookmark it, and I cannot find it. Anyone help me out?

[MaxMax]

Just an observation,.
If they could make this compound with a limited lifespan,
then inject directly into the tumor, it seems possible so long
as it doesn't kill everything else it contacts due to the body's own abilities
to attack anything obscure.

I appreciate any cancer breakthrough.

God Bless America,
MaxMax.

[MarkL]

Every now and then in pharmacological research, failure leads to success. IIRC, the drug company SK&F was near bankruptcy and they were testing a new drug as a heart medication. It failed miserably, but it seemed that some in the test group also had ulcers, and the new medication seemed to help them quite a bit. That medication later became known as Tagamet, and quite literally saved the company, and went on to be one of the best selling drugs in history.

Mark

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...but this just sounds like greed getting in the way of good medicine.

Along with death and taxes...that is one thing you can always count on.

Do some reading on dichloroacetate. It's being looked at as a new cancer treatment as well.

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar.

Let's watch and see how quickly this compound comes through trials and gets approved by the FDA.

[lepton]

which were originally derived from Pacific yew trees.

I seem to recall that. The Pharmeceutical company planted huge numbers of seedlings of an endangered yew species, and then the greenies sued to keep them from using the trees.