Thirty years of Israeli research at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has come to fruition in a new drug to fight cancer, which was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The new drug, called Velcade, was developed by Millennium Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts, reports the Israel21c website.
The new drug “shows a significant effect on patients with multiple myeloma that have not responded to other treatments,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan. According to the FDA, some 45,000 people in the U.S. alone have multiple myeloma, and an estimated 14,600 new cases are diagnosed each year.
The research that led up to the development of the new drug was directed by Professor Avram Hershko of the Technion. He and his team conducted research into the small protein involved in protein degradation, known as ubiquitin. It was the work of Hershko and his Technion team, including former student Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, that led to the discovery of the ubiquitin system, which controls cell division and prevents cancerous, unchecked growth. Hershko's research was partially supported by the Israel Cancer Research Fund, reports Israel21c.
Velcade works by inhibiting and disrupting numerous biologic pathways, including those related to the growth and survival of cancer cells, allowing the ubiquitin system to operate as it should.
The new drug “shows a significant effect on patients with multiple myeloma that have not responded to other treatments,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan. According to the FDA, some 45,000 people in the U.S. alone have multiple myeloma, and an estimated 14,600 new cases are diagnosed each year.
The research that led up to the development of the new drug was directed by Professor Avram Hershko of the Technion. He and his team conducted research into the small protein involved in protein degradation, known as ubiquitin. It was the work of Hershko and his Technion team, including former student Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, that led to the discovery of the ubiquitin system, which controls cell division and prevents cancerous, unchecked growth. Hershko's research was partially supported by the Israel Cancer Research Fund, reports Israel21c.
Velcade works by inhibiting and disrupting numerous biologic pathways, including those related to the growth and survival of cancer cells, allowing the ubiquitin system to operate as it should.