Howard: Not a grudge, just leary. I worked in Charles Dinarello's lab in the eighties. Charles was the scientist who cloned and sequenced IL-1 beta. The sequence was stolen by a reviewer when the manuscript was sent to the journal Nature. That reivewer was an Immunex scientist who was working in the field, and he went ahead and patented the sequence, AND rejected the paper, citing that the sequence was wrong and that Immunex in fact has the correct sequence. It took Charles another nine months to verify the sequence and the activities of the molecule (remember, this happened before PCR was invented). Meanwhile, he could not get his grant renewed because of the doubts that was expressed by the Immunex scientist. This 20 million dollar settlement went some way to punishing this company, but their spokesman also said, after the settlement was announced, that "It is not against the law to steal from review manuscripts for one's own benefits".
I'm simply not interested in investing or associating myself with a company with such a low standard of ethics.
There are plenty of biotechs with much better pipeline, higher scientific and moral standards and brighter future to put one's money.
Good luck,
Adrian |
