Ringaskiddy

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I'm back from my trip to Ireland. It will take a few days just to catch up

on the emails waiting for attention and some personal stuff.

The first 3 days in Ireland were spent attending and participating in the

New Horizons in Treating Cancer Conference for Organizations Representing

People with CML or GIST. There were 4 Canadian organizations represented

there.

LMC/CML Canada - Suzan McNamara

Zavie's Zero Club - Zavie

L & L Society of Canada - Rudy Putns

MedSummit - Cheryl-Anne Simoneau

For me, the most significant item discussed at this meeting was the plight

of the CML patients in the Eastern European countries. As an example, in

Poland patients are treated with 200 mg of Gleevec simply because there

isn't enough money for everyone to get the 400 mg dose. It is scary to think

about what happens to a patient who needs a 600 or 800 mg dose.

I enjoyed meeting and speaking to Zammett. Her book describes her

experience in the clinical trial with Dr. Mauro at OHSU. We compared notes

on Drs. Druker and Mauro and the wonderful staff at OHSU. Her book is a must

read if you ever spent any time at OHSU.

For the next 12 days my wife and I went on an organized tour of Ireland. In

three words, it was magical.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the Novartis plant in Ringaskiddy

(near Cork). I was able to personally thank many of the workers who were

there in 2000. They worked 24/7 to get the plant into production so that

patients like myself would have access to the drug.

Dr. O'Sullivan, Project Team Leader, was my tour guide. He was there

in 2000 when Gleevec was going into production. On an interesting note, Pat

is currently working on getting the AMN107 drug into full production.

As thrilled as I was to thank everyone, they were just as excited to meet

someone who had actually benefited from the drug. This was a win win

situation.

I was able to see a batch of Imatinib going through the final drying

process. This was just one of a dozen steps required to manufacture Gleevec.

The vat contained 650 kilos of Imatinib. I leave it to your imagination as

to how much that is worth. The raw Imatinib is produced at the Ringaskiddy

plant and then shipped to Switzerland where the tablets are made and

packaged.

After the plant tour we met with (Managing Director of the

plant), Downing (Head of Production) and n Mountjoy (Process

Manager). We took photos and they presented me with a autographed copy of

the book Spectacular Ireland. Again I thanked them on behalf of all the CML

patients who have done so well on Gleevec and also for those patients who

now have to use the AMN107 drug. I had the biggest grin on my face and they

were all so happy to meet me.

Zavie