OCTOBER 2001
FSU brings Taxol lab to Tallahassee
The war against cancer is moving to a new battleground that should bring world attention to Florida State.
FSU, in partnership with Taxalog Inc., a New Jersey research company, and MDS Research Foundation, is building a laboratory in Tallahassee to develop cancer-fighting drugs.
The basis of the cancer research will be analogues of Taxol,
a drug used for cancer treatment since 1994, after Florida State
chemistry Professor Robert Holton developed a process for synthesizing
Taxol from a compound found in the needles of the Pacific yew
tree.
Today, Taxol is effective against breast, ovarian and lung cancer.
But its analogues may yield cures for more cancers, such as deadly pancreatic cancer, and reduce the debilitating side effects of Taxol, according to John Fraser, director of technology transfer in FSU's Office of Research.
One of the new compounds has just been started in human testing, and results should be known in six months.
If the compound works after further extensive clinical trials, it could be approved for widespread use in four or five years.
"We're looking at technology-driven economic development based on a life science invention," Fraser said. "For Tallahassee, this is the first medical opportunity to turn into business."
FSU formed the partnership with Taxalog Inc., a company created by Holton, and MDS Research Foundation as a new approach to commercialization of research.
In the past, after Holton developed the process to make Taxol, FSU licensed it to Bristol Myers-Squibb, which controls the production, marketing and sales of the drug.
With this new partnership, however, commercial rights go to Taxalog Inc. and MDS Research Foundation.
Officials see this as the first step in unprecedented development for FSU and Tallahassee.
"This is the first chapter; there's more to come," Fraser said. - Dana Peck
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