Paul Huybrechts, Frieda Van Wijck Désiré Collen, Biotech Pioneer Paul Huybrechts Frieda Van Wijck Paul Huybrechts (1946) is a former financial journalist with the newspaper De Morgen, and the financial daily De Tijd. He later became managing director of the Publishing Company Tijd, owner of the daily, and chairman of the VFB (Vlaamse Federatie van Beleggers), the Flemish federation of retail investors. He is the author of Hugo’s Heilige Vuur, an extensive biography of the early years of Flemish politician Hugo Schiltz, and of SOS NMBS, a book on the dire situation of NMBS, the Belgian railroad company. He is co-author as well of Naar Grijsland, a book on the financial consequences of an aging population. Frieda Van Wijck (1950) is a former journalist and presenter for VRT – the Dutch-language public radio and television station in Belgium. She worked as a reporter and presenter for the Belgian World Service and hosted political television programs such as Terzake and De Zevende Dag. She interviewed many national and international celebrities and politicians on television for Spraakmakers and presented entertainment programs such as In alle Staten, De Laatste Show and De Klas van Frieda. © LSRP vzw, Paul Huybrechts, Frieda Van Wijck ISBN 978-1-64999-608-4 Translated from: Désiré Collen, Biotechpionier Authors: Paul Huybrechts, Frieda Van Wijck Publisher: LannooCampus Publishers, Leuven, Belgium 2 Table of Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................ 7 PART I: FROM NATURAL T-PA TO RECOMBINANT T-PA .................................... 9 Chapter 1: The making of a researcher ................................................................ 11 An exemplary student....................................................................................................................................... 13 Cristal rather than Stella ................................................................................................................................... 15 Blood for Marc Verstraete ................................................................................................................................ 16 Blood clot, cause or consequence? .................................................................................................................. 17 Doubt persists ................................................................................................................................................... 19 Guido Tytgat’s wake-up call .............................................................................................................................. 21 Chemistry in a turbulent city ............................................................................................................................ 23 Collen contracts hepatitis B .............................................................................................................................. 25 New York disappoints ....................................................................................................................................... 27 With a Viking in Sweden ................................................................................................................................... 28 The lab rather than the hospital ward .............................................................................................................. 30 Military service, but research continues .......................................................................................................... 31 Discovery of α2-antiplasmin ............................................................................................................................. 33 Breeding rabbits ............................................................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 2: The development of t-PA ..................................................................... 39 The experiments of Björn Wiman ..................................................................................................................... 41 Fons Billiau and the melanoma cell line ........................................................................................................... 42 Dick Rijken and Osamu Matsuo ........................................................................................................................ 44 Chapter 3: Enter Genentech .................................................................................. 47 DNA attracts money ......................................................................................................................................... 49 The girl in the pink sweater .............................................................................................................................. 51 Cloning recombinant cDNA of t-PA................................................................................................................... 54 A patient in Rotterdam ..................................................................................................................................... 55 Tests in Saint Louis ............................................................................................................................................ 56 Diane’s empty circles ........................................................................................................................................ 58 Competitors appear .......................................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 4: The road to confirmation ..................................................................... 61 Recombinant t-PA (rt-PA) tested in Leuven and Boston................................................................................... 63 A first t-PA patient in Leuven ............................................................................................................................ 66 FDA allows rt-PA tests on patients ................................................................................................................... 68 Verstraete mobilizes European cardiologist ..................................................................................................... 69 rt-PA beats streptokinase ................................................................................................................................. 70 3 Chapter 5: The FDA approves rt-PA...................................................................... 73 rt-PA becomes Activase .................................................................................................................................... 75 Fireworks in San Francisco ................................................................................................................................ 77 The failure of the Innovi adventure .................................................................................................................. 78 The biblical manna of the D. Collen Research Foundation ............................................................................... 80 In court in Delaware ......................................................................................................................................... 82 Which is the better therapy? ............................................................................................................................ 83 Roche takes over Genentech ............................................................................................................................ 86 Oxford throws doubts on rt-PA ........................................................................................................................ 87 The final assessment of rt-PA ........................................................................................................................... 88 Still standard for treatment of ischemic stroke ................................................................................................ 89 PART II: THROMBOLYSIS FOR THE POOR ....................................................... 91 Chapter 1: Entrepreneurship with Thromb-X ....................................................... 93 Yakult Honsha and Matsuo open up a new path .............................................................................................. 95 Ireland and the Cayman Islands ........................................................................................................................ 96 Testing on baboons........................................................................................................................................... 98 Envy among professors ................................................................................................................................... 100 Production by Medac...................................................................................................................................... 101 It works in patients ......................................................................................................................................... 102 An unpleasant surprise ..................................................................................................................................