Chemistry professor wins Heroes Award for anti-cancer drug

Edward Taylor, the 83-year-old organic chemistry professor behind the new blockbuster anticancer drug Alimta, was recently awarded the 2006 Heroes of Chemistry Award for his contributions to medicine.

The award, among the most prestigious in chemistry, is given by the American Chemical Society to "chemical innovators whose work has led to the welfare and progress of humanity."

Alimta — which was approved by the FDA in 2004 for treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma — effectively protracts patient life while minimizing suffering. It has also been approved as a second-line treatment in lung cancer.

Though Eli Lilly and Co., the corporation that marketed the drug, retains exclusive patent rights to the compound, the company pays Princeton a predetermined royalty rate.

The drug has been so successful that royalties from its worldwide sales are largely funding the construction of the University's planned chemistry building.

"The University is certainly getting its reward from this, and I can't think of a nicer way," Taylor said. As inventor of the compound, Taylor, the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus, also gets a share of the royalties.

Synthesized in Taylor's lab in 1989, the compound is now in clinical trial for all types of cancer.

"It is far along for thyroid, head and neck cancer, and has shown extraordinary responses in breast cancer, including examples of complete cures where patients, like my first cousin, had non-operable tumors in both breasts," Taylor said.

Taylor's interest in the problem of cancer began during his graduate work at Cornell in the emerging field of heterocyclic chemistry.

Moving to Princeton in 1954, Taylor eventually resumed his interest in synthesizing therapeutic compounds and began consulting for Eli Lilly. In 1989, Taylor approached the company to see if it would be interested in a compound he synthesized that showed efficacy in mouse cancer models.

After accepting the offer, Lilly conducted some preclinical tests on the drug, but the results were so dramatic that they apologetically asked Taylor for more time, presuming their tests had been faulty. It turned out that the tests were accurate — the compound was so effective that it stopped the growth of a great variety of solid tumors.

"This exciting news was the beginning of a wonderful collaboration, a relationship that started on trust from the beginning," Taylor said.

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Lilly provided the Princeton group with a patent lawyer, which enabled them to bypass the years of waiting many researchers face when trying to get patents approved.

The drug soon went into clinical trials, where it was effective for every kind of solid tumor, even types — like mesothelioma — that typically fail to respond to treatment. "By coincidence, 13 of the patients selected for a phase one clinical trial had mesothelioma and six immediately responded, which was so exciting," Taylor said.

Over the course of 12 years, Lilly spent more than $1 billion to complete the FDA approval process.

Taylor said that the chemistry itself was very exciting regardless of whether it produced a successful compound. "Heterocyclic chemistry lies at the heart of medicinal chemistry, and that's why it's so fascinating," he said.

While he still collaborates with Lilly, Taylor — who has written more than 450 papers and holds 52 U.S. patents — no longer runs a lab. "By the time I reached 80, I was tired of writing grant proposals," he said. But he still reads as much chemistry as he can. "I feel very lucky to have stumbled my way into this very lucky field way back when."

Taylor won the award along with two scientists from Lilly — a testament, as Taylor sees it, to the effectiveness of an academic-industrial collaboration.

"I'm pretty sure it's the first time this award was given to an academic chemist, which puts the spotlight on the potential of such collaboration," he said.

"It was a great thrill — a kind of euphoric ride— for the three of us to realize that we pulled it off."

"Every time one of these recognitions takes place it's just a further reinforcement that we did some good," he added. "It's almost unfair that we have such a good time doing it."