Seattle and its base of research was the place to be. Pathogenesis' flagship product, TOBI, is an aerosol antibiotic that patients with cystic fibrosis can inhale directly. The research came from Children's Hospital in Seattle. Cystic fibrosis destroys people's lungs, and the average patient dies at age 31. The current practice of injecting antibiotics, on the other hand, tends to eventually produce resistance to them, whereas TOBI is applied in alternate 28-day cycles.
Injections also can cause kidney damage.
Stevens says the company started working on monoclonal antibodies for cystic fibrosis, then heard about what researchers at Children's were doing. One project started going north and one started going south. We finally decided that we're going to kill that program and put all our resources on the TOBI project. So a failure led to a success. And the industry does have its share of failures.