Gleevec
If only Doug Morris knew how to use a computer.
I’m still reading the responses to my "Leukemia" missive. I appreciate the good will. But I’m reading slowly not only because the missives are all personal, directed specifically to me, but because I’m learning so much.
I heard from Steven Page, formerly of the Barenaked Ladies. Did I know that Kevin Hearn from BNL had leukemia? Steven copied him on the e-mail.
Turns out Kevin had CML too. Before Gleevec. He had a bone marrow transplant, and it worked.
Fat cat copyright-holders may decry the Internet, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I can reach many more people.
And they can reach me.
And not only have I learned that so many are living with the Big C, or have relatives who are fighting it, but I’ve been educated on the person who is saving my life, Brian J. Druker, M.D.
From those who had him as a mentor to those at the T.J. Martell Foundation who funneled money to him so he could complete his research. Hematologist number two had referenced him, said he was probably going to win a Nobel Prize for his efforts. For now, he’s just received a Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
One reader sent me the press release.
Another just sent me an article from the Science "Times". You know, that thin section at the back of Tuesday’s paper. I read it. But this article meant nothing to me back in November.
It means everything to me now.
Especially when Dr. Druker says:
"C.M.L. patients were always difficult to see because both of us knew that the clock was ticking and there was virtually nothing that we could do about it."
That could have been me.
But it’s not. Because some guy who wasn’t in it for the money, who was willing to sacrifice everything for his passion, put together the pieces to come up with a breakthrough drug that allows me to live.
Kind of like Tom Scholz.
Oh, decry Boston. But that’s one phenomenal record. It stands the test of time. Hell, just listen to "Foreplay/Long Time" and get back to me. Or the sweetness of "Hitch A Ride".
Tom Scholz did not go to music business school. Did not study engineering in some extension class. Rather he got a traditional education at M.I.T. and then worked as an engineer at Polaroid. Making music at night. In his basement. For years.
Tom Scholz came from essentially nowhere to owning the largest selling debut album of all time. Because he didn’t believe in rules, he was on his own journey.
Isn’t that why we revered the rock stars of yore? Because they did it their way, beholden to absolutely nobody?
When you’re in bed with Coke, when you’re shilling for the Fortune 500, do you really think we can believe in you? Don’t you wonder why your career has no legs?
But the real reason I’m writing this is because the word on Gleevec was spread online. Read the below article. Dr. Druker gave it to patients and then went home to see what they were saying about it in chat rooms. The Internet broke Gleevec. Patients, more educated than physicians, demanded it!
While fat cat businessmen are creating lowest common denominator music, fans are desirous of something different, cutting edge, uncompromised, that will touch their hearts.
And if we ever hear it, we tell everybody we know. Not because we’re being paid, but because of the sheer joy of listening and turning others on to great new music.
I about cried when I read this article in the "New York Times". This guy, who I don’t know, saved my life. Just like those records I used to play in my bedroom in the dark.
This business is saved by the Peter Gabriels, not the flashes in the pan. Took Peter four albums to make it, after years in Genesis. Now he still has fans willing to fork over cash when those much younger than him with Top Forty success must work day jobs.
Stop fighting the future. Embrace it.
Know that the Net allows everybody to have all the music at their fingertips. This is a good thing! Figure out how to get people to pay for it, not how to stop them from having it!
Maybe you won’t read this story. Maybe it just doesn’t apply to you.
But one day one of these out of the box thinkers is going to save you too.
