Survival: A Medical Memoir

This is the amazing true story of medical research, far outside the box, that led to the discovery of a novel antihistamine (DPPE) that helped chemotherapy drugs cure laboratory mice of cancer while protecting the bone marrow. The book chronicles an inventor's passion to move DPPE from the laboratory to the clinic; the unprecedented facilitation of its development and approval for human use by university and government bureaucrats; the decision of a U.S. pharmaceutical giant that stopped DPPE in its tracks after it was declared inactive at an early time-point in a major breast cancer trial, only to show a marked survival advantage in a follow-up analysis 18 months later; and its dramatic rescue by a small Canadian biotech company that, with a combination of luck, venture capital and the FDA’s blessing, took it back into a final trial needed for its approval. Intertwined with the human drama are the politics and science behind the story, including an unanticipated research finding with implications that shook the public, drug companies and regulatory agencies.