A little bit of holiday cheer for the bashers:
Question 1: Monocloncal antibodies are widely used in the treatment of human cancers. Their sales amount to several billion dollars/year. How long did it take from discovery to commercialization?
a) 2 minutes b) 2 weeks 3) 2 years d) 20 years
If you guessed anything but d), you would be incorrect.
Question 2: Antisense oligonucleotides have been in development for 20 years. How many FDA approved antisense drugs are used clinically at this time?
a) 20 b) 2 c) 1 d) 0.
Again, if you guessed anything but d), you would be incorrect (Actually, there is one approved FDA "antisense" drug, formivirsen, but its disease, cytomegalovirus retinitis, found in HIV patients, doesn't really exist any more because of the new anti-HIV drugs available)
Question 3: Taxol is one of the most active anticancer drugs ever discovered. Total sales were in the billions of dollars overall. Approximately how many years was it from the time of the publication of its mechanism of action until the time it reached the market?
a) 1.5 years b) 3 years c)6 years d) 12 years
answer: d) again!
Ergo: When Arnold, or anyone else, complains about the 2 years since synDNA has been discovered, you may want to point out these facts to him. In addition, as you know, JJ, it is not incumbent on me to "prove" that Malcolm's character is not what I claim it to be, which is stellar. It is up to Arnold and his ilk to prove that it is not so by the use of specific facts, and not just by the continuous recitation of unsubstantiated allegations or innuendo. This does not mean that MS cannot be criticized for performance; far from it. But no one on this board may engage in character assassination; those are management rules, and pointing out when the rules are being violated does not mean the pointer is an RBW or any other set of initials.
All the very best for a happy healthy holiday season and a prosperous New Year. MA
