RE: Coronavirus Trial Update18 May 2020 10:18
lets put Big Pharma into perspective ....... Block Buster "Keytruda"
Yet the success of pembro was anything but inevitable. It was discovered accidentally, by biotech scientists looking for drugs that would tamp down the immune response in patients with autoimmune disease, and would stimulate, not block, PD1. Even after a potent PD1 inhibitor was identified and recognized as a potential cancer drug, the research program had to fight for funding through two mergers and acquisitions. After the program finally wound up at Merck, in 2009, it was considered such a low priority that it was shut down and placed on the out-license list. A term sheet (valuing the program at next to nothing) was reportedly in place, but pulled at the last minute, as promising results from competitor Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) motivated a reconsideration of the mechanism.
so smart ...