It's very exciting in any industry when there is a new, emerging company. It not only means that there will be a new source of income for the industry and for the country that the industry is based in, but it also means new advances in technological know-how in that industry. It's especially exciting in the Pharmaceutical industry when there is an emerging company because the advances that the new company is expected to make usually result in better medicines and treatments that can save lives, reattach body parts, or increase the time that a cancer patient has. After all, the most important thing in life, is life itself and the enjoyment of it. New and emerging pharmaceutical companies cater right to this aspect.
OncoMed Pharmaceutical is an emerging pharmaceutical company that was founded in 2004 by Dr. Michael Clarke and Dr. Max Wicha. They founded their company based on research they did on the critical role cancer stem cells play in metastasis. In 2006, Paul Hastings took over the company as CEO and after originally forecasting an initial investment of 45 million, the CEO announced in November of 2008 that they investment total had reached 154 million dollars. Since then the company has been putting this money towards developing antibodies that fight tumor cells. While Hastings acknowledges that, "It will take a combination of pathways to block the pathways a cell uses to differentiate”, it appears that the future of fighting cancer has fallen into reliable hands at OncoMed Pharmaceutical.
Although it’s exciting when a toy company develops a new toy, or a tech company develops a faster computer, nothing quite compares to the excitement of discovery new cures for cancer. The value of human life is far greater than any joy a toy can bring, or any knowledge a faster laptop can bring. Forget the future of the U.S. economy. The future of the world rests in the hands of emerging pharmaceutical companies, and from the looks of it we’re in reliable hands.
-Gabriel Resstack
You and Maria both had very helpful blogs about the entrepreneurship in the pharmaceutical industry. I used a lot of your information in the final draft. Great analogy in the last paragraph!
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