A very nicely written article (and I don’t say that often!)
And the overall premise is spot on: while it’s a shame that the drugs failed, it’s okay, because we want companies to be taking bets on targets that might result in the next big drug to save or prolong lives.
> In 2026, a BMJ Oncology analysis would give a clinical name to what had happened: “herding.” The authors estimated that nearly 49,000 patients had been enrolled in anti-TIGIT trials by pharmaceutical companies, at a cost of more than $3 billion, all because their fellow pharmaceutical companies were doing the same thing
This is also spot on. I’ve been in the room when people have been infected by this peculiar competitive mania. Rational science takes a backseat to FOMO. But it’s also somewhat understandable: the model we have relies on companies making money to continue to exist and invest in further research and drug development. So of course, they all wanted a slice of the pie, no matter how wrong this was in retrospect. It’s just how the current system works, and it’s the least bad (?) system we’ve yet evolved for such sharing out of resources.
And the overall premise is spot on: while it’s a shame that the drugs failed, it’s okay, because we want companies to be taking bets on targets that might result in the next big drug to save or prolong lives.
> In 2026, a BMJ Oncology analysis would give a clinical name to what had happened: “herding.” The authors estimated that nearly 49,000 patients had been enrolled in anti-TIGIT trials by pharmaceutical companies, at a cost of more than $3 billion, all because their fellow pharmaceutical companies were doing the same thing
This is also spot on. I’ve been in the room when people have been infected by this peculiar competitive mania. Rational science takes a backseat to FOMO. But it’s also somewhat understandable: the model we have relies on companies making money to continue to exist and invest in further research and drug development. So of course, they all wanted a slice of the pie, no matter how wrong this was in retrospect. It’s just how the current system works, and it’s the least bad (?) system we’ve yet evolved for such sharing out of resources.