As I’ve shared before, repurposing existing drugs to treat COVID19 (and every other disease) is our best opportunity to save lives as quickly as possible. One drug that is being repurposed and has gotten a lot of attention is tocilizumab (Actemra). As I shared in #ChasingMyCure (excerpt below), it was originally developed by my friend and colleague, Dr. Kazu Yoshizaki, in the 90s for #Castleman disease and was first approved in Japan for CD. Another colleague in Japan told me that Kazu tested the drug on himself before he gave it to any humans to prove that it was safe. When I asked Kazu, he said “no, no, no. I didn’t give the drug to myself. The nurse, she gave it to me.” Today, tocilizumab is helping countless patients with rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and maybe even COVID19… Thanks, Kazu!
Check out the below video about our COVID19 drug repurposing work or go to: https://youtu.be/0HFHfTd9-Y8
David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, is a groundbreaking physician-scientist, disease hunter, speaker, and bestselling author of the acclaimed memoir, Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action. Best known as the ‘doctor who cured himself’ (Doctor Cure Thyself, NY Times), Fajgenbaum went from being a beast-like college Quarterback to receiving his last rites while in medical school and nearly dying four more times battling Castleman disease. To try to save his own life, he spearheaded an innovative approach to research and discovered a possible treatment that has put him into an extended remission. Now, he is spreading this approach to other diseases (His method could save millions, CNN) and sharing lessons he learned about living from nearly dying through Chasing My Cure, which has been translated into four languages and named one of the “Best Non-Fiction Books of 2019” by Next Big Ideas Club.