I received an email today from their top executive. I am so upset. There are no words to describe how upset I am
See below
Thank you for your email.
I was thinking about emailing you later in the day since I received an email early this morning from the Bayer development team that Bayer has decided, based upon their review of the data from the pre-clinical trials, that they will terminate the licensing agreement with Systems Oncology for ErSO. I do not have any further details regarding this decision but it means that Bayer will not proceed to phase I testing in humans. I believe that this also means that any future development of ErSO will be dependent upon Systems Oncology.
I know that this announcement will disappoint you greatly since you were eagerly looking forward to enroll in a trial with ErSO; I am so sorry.
Sincerely,
Joseph Germino, MD, PhD.
Vice President US Medical Affairs
Bayer Healthcare
Written by
Cureforever
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So sorry about this news. Would be interesting to know what failed. But remember, we are lucky that there are many treatments available. To find one cure for all mutations will be a huge challenge and one reason why drugs are so costly.
Maybe anyone contributing to cancer research or support groups or organizations should start contributing to Systems Oncology specifically for ERSO research.
I agree with you. We do not know the details. Even the original researchers do not know them. I hate this conspiracy but this is the word we live in. Marina
That makes me very sad, too. It sounded like such a hopeful drug for all of us. It would be nice to know what happened and if it was a safety issue or something else. Maybe Systems Oncology will decide another way to move forward with this drug.
It does not surprise me that a big pharmacare company like Bayer decides to terminate support of an untested drug. Likely, it was totally a decision based on financial considerations, very little to do with the science behind ErSo.
"Bayer AG is a German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceuticals; consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals, seeds and biotechnology products."
Those of you who offer financial support to the very many organizations whose business is collecting money for cancer research should indeed switch to supporting Systems Oncology directly, as Justme153 suggested. Personally, I no longer support any organization which spends a significant portion of its collected funds on administration, simply to stay in business, so I think giving money directly to a company doing scientific research makes sense (assuming that they have a mechanism/procedure to collect money from the public).
The individual cost of the cancer treatment products that have been developed really astounds me since none of them are touted as a cure for MBC which is designated as "incurable".
To me, it is ridiculous that all the "pink campaigns" in October constantly talk about a "cure for breast cancer", referring to early breast cancer which, in the majority of cases, is cured by surgery, radiation, and adjuvant treatment. Those few of us unlucky enough to develop metastases are then told our disease is incurable, and we are fortunate to be allowed to buy very expensive drugs (with side effects that impact on our quality of life) to simply prolong our lives for as long as possible.
Enough of my ranting! Needless to say, I give my donations to the needy, not to big businesses.
Thanks for letting us know about the email you received, Cureforever!
Hi Cindy,I agree with you 100%. Those breast cancer organizations make me mad as well. You may join our group on Facebook. We will still continue our fight for ErSO which researchers still envision as a cure.
Hi Cindy. I am glad that you joined and find it interesting. I was invited there by Danny Goss who is also a member of our forum. He is one of the admins there. I believe that ErSO may still be developed by someone else. It will just take much longer for us. Best,Marina
Hi Sandra,Thank you for sharing your opinion. Many people in our group are still hopeful. Off course now it will take more time. Some people said that Herceptin was also turned down by Bayer or any other big pharma and then was developed by a small one
Thanks, Sandra, for letting me know. I did confuse the two drugs when I checked for a clinical trial on NIH's ClinicalTrials.gov. I wonder whether Japan has a similar website??
After a 39-year career as a non-medical clinician, academic and researcher, I do not pretend to know any more about big pharmacare companies than the information available online. However, it seems clear that Bayer is totally a profit-oriented business. Thus, it seems logical to me that their decisions are driven by financial considerations.
I don't know why Bayer apparently "misspent" $25 million on ErSo, for the privilege of not subjecting it to clinical trials, but I could imagine various reasons, none more compelling than the others, given my lack of knowledge about Bayer's business practices. Your assumption that ErSo failed a toxicity test is not necessarily more viable than the various reasons I might concoct.
By the way, the equivalent of the FDA in the USA is the PMDA (Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency) in Japan. My guess is most governments in developed countries have similar departments. However, the FDA is the single most important agency for big pharmacare because the US spends far more on drugs than any other country in the world.
According to Statista.com, "The United States was the largest pharmaceutical market in 2020, generating roughly 46 percent of total revenues worldwide. China established itself as the second-largest market with a sales share of eight percent". Japan was third with a 7% share, and Canada was ninth with a 2% share (statista.com/statistics/245....
It’s sad news, & yet, very common to see this happen. Thank you for sharing your knowledge Sandra. It’s always helpful to put things in context. My heart goes out to everyone who was devastated by the news.
BAYER's agreement with other companies dating back to 2020. Incredible, shopping around it appears and then not agreeing with the development. Not just once, but again.Bayer and Healthbridge Therapeutics sign exclusive license agreement ...
Repost from Bayer news release here:. WHIPPANY, N.J., September 15, 2020 - Bayer has entered into an exclusive global license agreement with Healthbridge Therapeutics, LLC, for ERSO, a compound in pre-clinical development for metastatic Estrogen Receptor (ER) positive, breast cancer.ERSO is a small molecule activator of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) in ER-positive breast cancer cells.
Posting this to let all know that the 2nd disappointment was not the first with Bayer.
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