# How was Gleevec discovered? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733 "2003-11-28T15:33:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lilabet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b38774/32.png) [@lilabet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilabet)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733/1 "2003-11-28T15:33:29Z")
My sister is doing a dissertation on something or other - hang on, let me find what she said to me in her email… Ok here it is : **The role of protein structure in rational drug design.** Right. Ok. But right now she needs to know how the anti-Cancer drug Gleevec was discovered, but apparently there is very little info around on it, (I take it she already googled it, ok). Do any of you guys have any information on this? (And don’t worry about keeping it simple, I will just copy and paste the information into email for her! I work as a settlements clerk, not a scientist…!) Thank you so much, Lil ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733/2 "2003-11-28T15:51:48Z")
I don’t have any specific information, but my understanding is that the drug was designed using computer models of the gene product of the Philadelphia chromosome. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733/3 "2003-11-28T16:28:16Z")
Wasn’t Gleevec first isolated in a study of the addictive agents present in Slurm? Seriously though, [US Patent 6,645,972](http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=Gleevec&OS=Gleevec&RS=Gleevec) gives background on the invention of Gleevec. ---
**Author:** ![lilabet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b38774/32.png) [@lilabet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilabet)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733/4 "2003-11-28T17:34:18Z")
Bloody hell! And that makes sense to some people…??? Thank you for the link, I think I’ll point her to the page and let her make head or tail of it, she is BTW, way brainier than I originally thought if she understands that…! Thank you very much for your help, anyone else who knows anything about it, do let me know! Ta, Lil ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2003, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733/5 "2003-11-29T07:11:35Z")
if read that patent correctly, it’s for a treatment for leukemia patients who don’t respond to gleevec anymore. i didn’t see anything on the development of gleevec, but maybe i missed it. a while back i read up on gleevec and most pages, if they cover the topic at all, just say something about dr druker asking novartis if they had a drug that would inhibit a certain abnormal enzyme. [this page](http://www.bwfund.org/news/awardee_profiles/brian_druker.html) give a bit more on it: > [@](#): > > Scientists from the drug company Novartis (then Ciba-Geigy) approached Dr. Roberts at Dana-Farber about setting up a drug discovery program to inhibit tyrosine kinases, because such a drug would be useful in treating cancer and other diseases. “Since I had been the only oncologist in Dr. Robert’s lab, it was natural for the Novartis scientists to get my opinion about what the potential therapeutic targets would be in the field of tyrosine kinases,” Dr. Druker recalls. “I thought CML would be one of the first diseases that would be treated [with a kinase inhibitor].” > > Convincing the drug company to develop an inhibitor specifically targeting CML was another matter, but Dr. Druker says he was ultimately able to persuade the drug maker that getting a CML drug into the market would make the compound available as a possible treatment for other cancers. It was only a matter of time before Gleevec was developed, entered into clinical trials and, after showing such promise in treating CML, fast-tracked for FDA approval. ps sorry about the lack of capitals, but my keyboard is misbehaving. ---
**Author:** ![lilabet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b38774/32.png) [@lilabet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lilabet)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-was-gleevec-discovered/215733/6 "2003-12-01T10:51:20Z")
Wow, thanks dtilque, shall point my sister to this page, as, frankly, none of this makes a blind bit of sense to me. But there you go. Ta, Lil