The Monster Drug

Diabetes News Up-Date The Monster Drug


The Beautiful Gila Monster
The most fascinating drug discovery story that I have ever run across is Dr. John Eng's research on gila monster venom. He synthesized it and gave it the name exendin-4. It sharply reduces blood glucose and somewhat reduces appetite. When his employer declined to patent it, Dr. Eng bet that it would be important. Eventually he sold the rights to the drug to Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which is developing it as AC2993. It is now in Phase 3 clinical trials. A few days ago I had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Eng for more than an hour and get the full story.

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