Natural drug discovery on the decline
(NEWSER) - Halaven, the new breast cancer drug the FDA approved in November, has an origin that’s rare in today’s pharmaceutical industry: It’s natural. Halaven is derived from halichondrin B, a chemical found in a species of black sponge that lives off the coast of Japan, the Wall Street Journal reports. Once that wouldn’t have been so remarkable, but lately large pharmaceutical companies have focused almost entirely on synthetic, targeted drugs. More»
