Almost everyone else viewed targeting cytokines as a waste of time. "The thought was, if you just block one of them, then all the others will just keep on driving the biological processes," Feldmann remembers.
That was my prediction, minus the "waste of time". I was adamant, insisting that efficacy of anti-TNF would be marginal.
:-(
And then the results started showing "for real".
:-)
That said, the article is good but overdoes it a bit on the "we were considered heretics" side. The work was rational, even if most believed that efficacy would not be pronounced.
It's been a blast, being in immunology during this period. 99% of stuff is BS dogma that gets lost, but the foundation to immunology continues to firm.
Aside........... I was involved, early, in anti-TNF. At Bayer (Cutter), we were considering the early evaluation of Chiron's anti-TNF. I left when it was in the formative stage (1986), before the antibody arrived. I believe that Mike Collins (Bayer-Cutter) was the first to show that anti-TNF could lead to systemic infection that would otherwise resolve. I may remember incorrectly, but I think that he used Listeria.
This may be the reason that Bayer dropped the project, and didn't collaborate further with Chiron?? Regardless the reason, yet another wise decision by Bayer re. biotech. Not. |
