This Israeli drug helped Jimmy Carter beat cancer

An Israeli anti-cancer drug helped cure Jimmy Carter of brain cancer. Wonder how this development impacts Carter’s thinking about the legitimacy of academic boycott of Israel.

http://www.jta.org/2015/12/08/news-opinion/united-states/this-israeli-drug-helped-jimmy-carter-beat-cancer

Israel has been leading research in electronics and medicine for some time now.

Indeed Nicko
The irony of saving the life of a person who has backed Hamas and called for boycotting Israel

I thought that was developed by Merck.

Made by Merck:

Established in 1957, The Merck Foundation (the “Foundation”) is a U.S.-based private foundation funded entirely by Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA, and serves as the company’s chief source of funding support to qualified nonprofit charitable and philanthropic organizations whose initiatives address important societal needs and whose goals are consistent with our giving priorities.



Products

• Vaccines
  
• Prescription Products & Prescribing Information
  
• Oncology
  
• Consumer Products
  
• Animal Health
  
• Product Patents
  
• Authorized Distributors
  

Cancer is one of the world's most urgent unmet medical needs.
Helping people fight cancer is our passion. We are committed to developing breakthrough biomedical innovations to help extend and improve the lives of people with cancer worldwide.

EMEND® (aprepitant) capsules 125/80 mg, for oral use Prescribing Information Patient Product Information Product website	EMEND® (fosaprepitant dimeglumine) for Injection, for intravenous use Prescribing Information Patient Product Information
INTRON® A Interferon alfa-2b, recombinant For Injection Prescribing Information (1 mL diluent) Prescribing Information (5 mL diluent) Medication Guide Instructions for Use - Powder for Solution (1 mL diluent) Instructions for Use - Powder for Solution (5 mL diluent) Instructions for Use – Solution for Injection Product website	KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) for injection, for intravenous use KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) injection, for intravenous use Prescribing Information Medication Guide Product website

http://www.merck.com/product/oncology/home.html

Raggamuffin wrote:I thought that was developed by Merck.

It was.

Pembrolizumab (formerly MK-3475 and lambrolizumab, trade name Keytruda[1]) is a humanized antibody used in cancer immunotherapy. It targets the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor.[2] The drug was initially used in treating metastatic melanoma.[3][4]

Pembrolizumab was invented by Gregory Carven, Hans van Eenennaam and John Dulos at Organon Biosciences which later became Schering Plough Research Institute and then Merck & Co.[5] MRC Technology humanized the antibody pembrolizumab for Organon in 2006.

On September 4, 2014 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab under the FDA Fast Track Development Program. It is approved for use following treatment with ipilimumab, or after treatment with ipilimumab and a BRAF inhibitor in advanced melanoma patients who carry a BRAF mutation.[6] It is marketed by Merck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembrolizumab

It's great progress, whoever developed it.

Raggamuffin wrote:It's great progress, whoever developed it.

It is, but Israel are always doing that lol

oh dear

A drug that was researched and tested in Israel has helped former President Jimmy Carter overcome his life-threatening case of melanoma.


Keytruda helps immune system cells identify and destroy tumor cells, which usually pass by them undetected. This bolstering of the immune system is a break from the theory behind chemotherapy, which is designed to destroy cancerous cells but also destroys healthy ones.

Richard The Lionheart wrote:oh dear

A drug that was researched and tested in Israel has helped former President Jimmy Carter overcome his life-threatening case of melanoma.


Keytruda helps immune system cells identify and destroy tumor cells, which usually pass by them undetected. This bolstering of the immune system is a break from the theory behind chemotherapy, which is designed to destroy cancerous cells but also destroys healthy ones.

It probably has been researched and tested in Israel, but it wasn't developed there initially.

But they have made the breakthrough, so its down to Israel that has brought about making the drug life saving
So your attempt and sassy to discredit them was poor Rags

Richard The Lionheart wrote:But they have made the breakthrough, so its down to Israel that has brought about making the drug life saving
So your attempt and sassy to discredit them was poor Rags

What breakthrough? To treat brain tumours with the drug?

I'm not discrediting anyone Didge, I'm just saying that Merck developed the drug.

But did not make the drug able to cure as the Israelis have done so.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4527743,00.html

A groundbreaking biological treatment for cancer jointly developed by Israeli and American researchers has been presented at an international conference on cancer research in Chicago.

Merck, the American company that developed the drug, has a department in Israel called MSD, which operates a research division working in tandem with medical centers in Israel.

So still joint with Israel, which would be impossible without the Israel research.
Hence the irony of boycotting academics the point you miss rags

Richard The Lionheart wrote:But did not make the drug able to cure as the Israelis have done so.

Yes they have. They don't talk about "cure" though, they talk about improvement.

Tomato, Tomoto

You miss the point on this idiot, wanting to boycott Israel academics, which end up help saving his life.
Can you not grasp that?

I’m writing today to share exciting news: just hours ago the FDA approved a new immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer. This game-changing breakthrough has the potential to dramatically improve treatment of many different types of cancer. 

Known as Keytruda (pembrolizumab), and made by the drug company Merck, the drug belongs to a class of immunotherapies called checkpoint inhibitors. These drugs “take the brakes off” the immune response to cancer. They represent the most promising new cancer therapies to emerge in decades.

Merck’s drug is the first FDA approved checkpoint inhibitor targeting a molecule called PD-1. The drug has been approved for the treatment of advanced or inoperable melanoma in patients who have failed prior treatment.

I am proud to say that the Cancer Research Institute has played a central role in the basic science and clinical research that paved the way for the FDA approval of this important new drug. We funded the work of three scientists—Arlene Sharpe, Gordon Freeman, and Lieping Chen—whose research was crucial in establishing PD-1 as a new checkpoint that could be targeted with immunotherapy. Multiple CRI graduate students and postdoctoral fellows worked in these labs over the course of 15 years. More recently, Antoni Ribas, at UCLA, who is a member of our clinical trials network and a CRI-SU2C Dream Team Co-Leader, was a principal investigator of the trial that established the drug’s efficacy. And just this year, we announced that we will award our highest honor, the William B. Coley Award, to the four scientists whose laboratory work made this drug possible.

I am incredibly optimistic that checkpoint inhibitors like Keytruda as well as other immunotherapies in development, especially when used in combination, will ultimately transform the treatment of many if not all types of cancer. It is a wonderful day for patients.

This approval once again demonstrates the power of cancer research to save lives, and invigorates our resolve to continue funding cutting-edge research that leads to effective immune system-based cancer treatments.

Many thanks for all you do to help this and other cancer immunotherapies come to life.

 
- See more at: http://www.cancerresearch.org/news-publications/our-blog/september-2014/fda-approves-new-merck-cancer-immunotherapy-keytruda#sthash.H2l4OdDK.dpuf

Richard The Lionheart wrote:So still joint with Israel, which would be impossible without the Israel research.
Hence the irony of boycotting academics the point you miss rags

There were clinical trials in Israel, yes.

The point you keep missing rags.
He wanted to boycott israel academics.
If this had happened, would he now be better?

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/jimmy-carters-cancer-not-treated-by-israeli-drug-plus-it-isnt-cured/2015/12/08/

Listen, I'm not knocking the team in Israel - well done to them for the trials and for helping to develop uses for this drug. I'm just not sure it can be said that they were responsible for the treatment of Jimmy Carter.

Sorry rags that does not answer my question.
Again you miss the whole irony here.

Richard The Lionheart wrote:Sorry rags that does not answer my question.
Again you miss the whole irony here.

I just did. It's not just the team in Israel who have conducted clinical trials.

Credit to Professor Jacob Schachter and the team obviously. I'm not sure I'd call them "academics" though.

I don't know anything about Jimmy Carter's alleged support for a boycott though. I can't find much about it.

Raggamuffin wrote:Listen, I'm not knocking the team in Israel - well done to them for the trials and for helping to develop uses for this drug. I'm just not sure it can be said that they were responsible for the treatment of Jimmy Carter.

Plus they didn't do most of the testing:

I am proud to say that the Cancer Research Institute has played a central role in the basic science and clinical research that paved the way for the FDA approval of this important new drug. We funded the work of three scientists—Arlene Sharpe, Gordon Freeman, and Lieping Chen—whose research was crucial in establishing PD-1 as a new checkpoint that could be targeted with immunotherapy. Multiple CRI graduate students and postdoctoral fellows worked in these labs over the course of 15 years. More recently, Antoni Ribas, at UCLA, who is a member of our clinical trials network and a CRI-SU2C Dream Team Co-Leader, was a principal investigator of the trial that established the drug’s efficacy. And just this year, we announced that we will award our highest honor, the William B. Coley Award, to the four scientists whose laboratory work made this drug possible.

From link above.

Raggamuffin wrote:I don't know anything about Jimmy Carter's alleged support for a boycott though. I can't find much about it.

He's a great supporter of Palestine and BDS, many Israelis were tweeting that he deserved to die when he first got it.

Merck immunotherapy Keytruda shows promise in multiple myeloma trial
By Bill Berkrot









Merck & Co's immunotherapy Keytruda led to a high response rate for patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma when added to standard therapy in a small, early stage trial, according to data presented on Monday.

The Phase I study tested Keytruda in combination with Celgene's Revlimid and the corticosteroid dexamethasone in patients whose disease had progressed after they had already received several other treatments, including several who were not helped by previous treatment with Revlimid.

Among 17 patients available for evaluation in the ongoing 50-patient trial, the overall response rate was 76 percent, meaning 13 of the 17 had a meaningful reduction in the cancer.

Of those, four had a so-called very good partial response, where the level of abnormal "M" proteins in the blood decreased by at least 90 percent.

"This is very preliminary but really promising data," said Dr. Jesus San Miguel, the study's lead investigator who presented the results at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Orlando.

"We have patients who haven't responded to any other drugs and they have responded to this combination," added San Miguel, professor of hematology at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.

Patients will continue to be followed to determine their eventual duration of response.

Roger Dansey, head of oncology research for Merck, called the early response sufficient for the company to move the treatment combination into large Phase III trials that could be used to seek approval in multiple myeloma.

Keytruda, known chemically as pembrolizumab, belongs to a closely watched new class of drugs called PD-1 inhibitors that help the immune system fight cancer by blocking a mechanism tumors use to evade attack.

It is already approved to treat lung cancer and advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

Keytruda is being tested in some 30 tumor types, alone and in combination with other medicines. It recently received breakthrough designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for colorectal cancer.

There were no surprising or more serious side effects from combining the drugs that what had previously been reported separately for Revlimid and Keytruda, researchers said.

There were no reported cases of colitis or lung inflammation that had been seen in other Keytruda trials.

"Incidence of side effects is low, but could be due to limited exposure to the drug so far," Miguel said. "The side effect profile is pretty good."



http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-blood-merck-idUSKBN0TQ1BR20151207



Researched for use and approval in Israel more like. Most government research agencies do that lol

Raggamuffin wrote:I don't know anything about Jimmy Carter's alleged support for a boycott though. I can't find much about it.

It is a major point and I wonder if he will now see the folly of his views that he should not condemn a whole nation based off the policies and views of some