サリドマイドが強力な抗がん剤に変身！？（Forbes 日本版7月号）
サリドマイドを抗がん剤として販売している会社セルジーン社
時価総額は120億ドルでamgenよりも大きい会社となっているそうです。
サリドマイドが承認されそうもなく、ビジネスにもなりそうにならずと、誰も手を出さなかったときにライセンス取得。昨年12月には改良した抗がん剤レプリミドを開発。
サリドマイドが多発性骨髄腫に使われたきっかけの物語は非常に面白く、日本語版では簡単にまとめて省略されていたのでコピペ。
In 1996 serendipity arrived, in the form of Beth Jacobson, then a 34-year-old lawyer at Skadden, Arps in Manhattan. Her husband, a cardiologist named Ira Wolmer, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma at the unusually early age of 35. She spent her nights on the floor of her husband's hospital room, reading medical journals. During the day she called doctors. One Saturday night Judah Folkman, the famed Harvard cancer researcher, returned her call. On the phone he suddenly hatched a radical idea: Why not try thalidomide? Experiments in his lab indicated the drug had anticancer potential.
Jacobson persuaded her husband's doctor, Bart Barlogie, to try the drug, but it failed. Wolmer died three months later. But Barlogie tried it a second time--and that patient is still alive eight years later. Barlogie contacted Celgene, and the company funded an 84-patient trial. In November 1999 the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine: 32% of patients saw levels of defective protein in their blood decrease dramatically. Over the next eight years Celgene quadrupled the price of thalidomide, bringing it in line with other effective cancer pills. Myeloma patients take it as long as it works and they can handle the side effects.
「サリドマイドが抗がん作用を有する可能性」という情報をCelgene社Sol J. Barer。Judah Folkman。サリドマイドの使用を思いついたJudah Folkman、嘆願したBeth Jacobson。情報がもつ価値に驚かされます。
Forbes原文記事
http://www.forbes.com/business/global/2006/0227/056A.html
http://www.forbes.com/business/global/2006/0227/056A_2.html
セルジーン社HP
http://www.celgene.com/
セルジーン社株価推移（google Finance)（すごい跳ね上がってます）
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=Celgene&btnG=Search
サリドマイドを抗がん剤として販売している会社セルジーン社
時価総額は120億ドルでamgenよりも大きい会社となっているそうです。
サリドマイドが承認されそうもなく、ビジネスにもなりそうにならずと、誰も手を出さなかったときにライセンス取得。昨年12月には改良した抗がん剤レプリミドを開発。
サリドマイドが多発性骨髄腫に使われたきっかけの物語は非常に面白く、日本語版では簡単にまとめて省略されていたのでコピペ。
In 1996 serendipity arrived, in the form of Beth Jacobson, then a 34-year-old lawyer at Skadden, Arps in Manhattan. Her husband, a cardiologist named Ira Wolmer, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma at the unusually early age of 35. She spent her nights on the floor of her husband's hospital room, reading medical journals. During the day she called doctors. One Saturday night Judah Folkman, the famed Harvard cancer researcher, returned her call. On the phone he suddenly hatched a radical idea: Why not try thalidomide? Experiments in his lab indicated the drug had anticancer potential.
Jacobson persuaded her husband's doctor, Bart Barlogie, to try the drug, but it failed. Wolmer died three months later. But Barlogie tried it a second time--and that patient is still alive eight years later. Barlogie contacted Celgene, and the company funded an 84-patient trial. In November 1999 the results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine: 32% of patients saw levels of defective protein in their blood decrease dramatically. Over the next eight years Celgene quadrupled the price of thalidomide, bringing it in line with other effective cancer pills. Myeloma patients take it as long as it works and they can handle the side effects.
「サリドマイドが抗がん作用を有する可能性」という情報をCelgene社Sol J. Barer。Judah Folkman。サリドマイドの使用を思いついたJudah Folkman、嘆願したBeth Jacobson。情報がもつ価値に驚かされます。
Forbes原文記事
http://www.forbes.com/business/global/2006/0227/056A.html
http://www.forbes.com/business/global/2006/0227/056A_2.html
セルジーン社HP
http://www.celgene.com/
セルジーン社株価推移（google Finance)（すごい跳ね上がってます）
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=Celgene&btnG=Search
