Month: September 2022

MUTATION TARGETS IN TUMORS ARE IMPORTANT. View in LinkedIn

WE STUBBORNLY PERSIST WITH THE NOTION OF A MAGIC BULLET TREATMENT IN CANCER. This very wording holds false hope, and is a rotten concept. Nixon's War on Cancer campaign started 40 years ago. It has turned out since then that cancer is very heterogeneous and is not one disease, but a condition with many genotypes. Today it is these genotypes that will be the definition of the cancer type. And each type has degrees of difficulty to treat. So the concept of a magic bullet is completely misleading. View in LinkedIn

JAPAN WANTS TO NURTURE GLOBAL TALENT FROM WITHIN by emphasis on English and Chinese (editorial in The Japan News May 13 2013 p. 9). One of Japan's hot issues is university reforms to a achieve global competitiveness. The editorial emphasized the need to focus on IP which is "strategically vital for national security". The focus on the Chinese language is related both to the increasing number of Chinese employed in Japan, and to the "threat to the diplomacy and security of Japan" and the huge market it represents. Curiously, there is no mention to attract external talent. View in LinkedIn

USING MICROBES TO RECOVER RARE METALS FROM INDUSTRIAL WASTE (The Japan News May 13, p. 7). Morishita Jitan and Mitsubishi have developed microencapsulated bacteria which can inexpensively extract rare metals from industrial slurries, without toxic chemicals. This will be implemented in Japan this year, and eventually sold overseas. Living on a small island makes this nation very creative and sensitive to resource issues. View in LinkedIn

KEY DATA: THE US CANCER DRUG COSTS INCLUDE WHOPPING WASTES. Despite many new drugs, the US spends ~70 billion USD on cancer drugs annually, but still wastes ~40%, because the drugs don't work; this is largely because the patient rather than the tumor is the test subject. At a estimated cost of ~5 Bn USD to map those patients, ~25 Bn USD of wrong drugs would be saved (Time; May 20, 2013: p. 42). View in LinkedIn

THE CURRENT CANCER TREATMENT PARADIGM IS CLEARLY CHANGING, but not fast enough for some. The waste of money is less important than the very personal and immense human tragedy of treatment failures. Dr. Charlie Hsiao, the famous founder of Ivax Pharma and Impax Labs was a good friend, but died after numerous bone marrow transplants. Rational personalized medicine may have changed this outcome, had it been ready then. View in LinkedIn

WHERE IS THE LOGJAM FOR GOOD CANCER TREATMENTS? Research has been coming up with increasing new ways to treat individual types of cancer, and the FDA has been doing a good job of approval recently. The delivery of care appears very variable, with some centers being very innovative and others not. Our friends in the insurance and public health sectors, the payors, may be more skeptical about innovation than they should be, and thus contribute to the very patchy healthcare picture. View in LinkedIn

WORKING WITH JAPANESE COMPANIES REQUIRES SPECIAL EFFORT. If you go to the trouble to bond with them, really be hospitable, involve senior management, they will invariably make superb partners. They often have life-long jobs, so the champion is unlikely to rotate out like the American counterparts, and this stability gives for long-term relations. Gifts and correct dress and correct manners are essential. Do your homework and understand how to work with your new partner, and it will pay off both ways. View in LinkedIn

SAKE, SHOCHU AND BEER ARE JAPANESE STAPLES. It is normal for Japanese people to go to great lengths to entertain their hosts with meals, visits to key sightseeing events, and often involving all senior managers remotely involved in the project. In the West we have consistently done a dreadful job of reciprocating, and poor Japanese visitors often feel slighted and abandoned by our lazy hospitality. This is a missed opportunity to bond and create superb working relationships. View in LinkedIn

THE JAPANESE AND CATALAN CULTURES HAVE MANY SIMILARITIES. Personally deeply honest and sincere, making friends for life, family-centric and value-centric, with respect for elders; locked both in deep old past traditions and moving into modern worlds; having invested in the Knowledge Revolution, waiting for the Tipping Point from one tech success; struggling with the equation that ambition = greed, and The Nail That Sticks Up Gets Hammered Down; and how to attract and retain experienced entrepreneurs from abroad. And did I mention superlative hosts and dedicated foodies? View in LinkedIn