Gleevec pioneer slams Novartis on drug pricing, patents
It’s been clear for some time that bad blood has been building between Oregon Health and Science University researcher Brian Druker (pictured at left), who first showed that the cancer drug Gleevec could produce near-miraculous remissions in certain leukemia patients, and the drugmaker Novartis, which owns Gleevec. When asked, Druker has long acknowledged that he had to cajole dubious officials at Novartis — then Ciba-Geigy — into keeping Gleevec alive, in part because those officials… Continue Reading