Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Biotech / Medical : ArQule -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Voodoo who wrote (185)	2/8/1998 11:22:00 PM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 399

No one knows why Taxol has the seeming mitigating effect on certain cancers. All that can be said is there is a chance it will help. It's a statistical correlation of help, and it's vague. The second issue of mimetic synthesis is more troubling in that the presumed molecular equivalent has in some cases caused worse symptoms than placebo or needle derivative. The quantity of Taxol retrievable from natural sources is more than sufficient for the expected demand. Now if you're arguing that something similar in molecular structure would be more effective at inhibiting metastasis in ovarian cancer, then whatever means can be applied to bring that forth is desirable. Further, if you're implying that mechanical manipulation of, say, taxolic molecular similars will lead to it, then there hasn't been much value added from the machine because the machine has to be discretely directed down preferred lines. What preferred lines? That's the real problem, not how many near misses there are generatable from a machine. Is it so easy to generate the right stuff or does that require thinking? All the machine does is multiply the number of possibilities in generating new potential candidates. You still have a daunting task of evaluation which rises rapidly with machine output. So many choices. So many chances to squander time and resources on a dud or a toxin when you could have been using the time to think up a better way or play golf. So it boils down to the fact that the machine is worth something. Like a typewriter is better than handwriting, the machine accelerates our output. It doesn't improve it. And the worth something isn't 240x.