Save Hoffman La Roche from itself

Robert Waldmann

Zenapax world supplies at risk – well basically nonexistent.

I was thrilled when my father, Thomas Waldmann won a Service to America award in large part for his contribution to the development of Daclizumab, that is, Zenapax TM, a humanized monoclonal antibody which inhibits the immune response. Zenapax is approved for sale for the prevention of rejection of transplanted kidneys. It is also demonstrably beneficial for people who suffer from auto-immunse diseases including Mutliple Schlerosis Uveitis
(the reason Braille was blind) and inflamatory bowel disease and is key to a promising approach to treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the numerous minority of cases in which standard therapies fail .

The patent belongs to Hoffman La Roche Ltd whose role was basically to organize and finance the clinical trials which demonstrated the effectiveness of Zenapax in the prevention of rejection of transplanted kidneys.

However, Hoffman La Roche pharmaceuticals has decided to stop making Zenapax for uhm no comprehesible reason. I quote “This decision has been taken in view of available alternative treatments and the diminishing market demand for ZENAPAX and is not due to any safety issue.

This decision makes no business sense. It casts doubt on the question of whether managers of Hoffman La Roche pharmaceuticals are up to the task of making decisions which affect thousands of lives. By law Hoffman La Roche is not allowed to advertize uses of Zenapax other than the one for which it was approved. No law prevents them from forecasting demand based on the evidence, published in top peer reviewed journals, that Zenapax has many other uses and that demand for the antibody will increase.

Obviously the decision is reversible. I am going to try to convince Hoffman La Roche to not kill the goose that will lay golden eggs.

update: Now I understand. Hoffman La Roche does not completely own all of the rights to daclizumab= Zenapax. The drug will imply huge profits for someone, but not for them even if they make it, because they didn’t buy the rights to use it for purposes other than preventing transplant rejection. It’s too late to save Hoffman La Roche from itself (also I exagerated since they are making plenty of profits from other drugs).