tPA for Stroke

Each year, nearly 700,000 people in the United States will have a stroke. A drug known as tPA can drastically reduce the long-term disability associated with stroke if it is administered within the first three hours after the event occurs. Many of those who are lucky enough to be treated with tPA have made full recoveries—to the extent that one can hardly believe they suffered a "real" stroke. Others still do not receive the drug; many suffer permanent disabilities,and many die.Authors Zivin and Simmons argue that most Americans have never heard of tPA. Why would such an effective pharmaceutical, one that has a remarkable rate of success with the third leading killer of Americans, be so disregarded? tPA for Stroke: The Story of a Controversial Drug explains the drug's beginnings within pharmaceutical giant Genentech, and its eventual marginalization due to a convergence of unfortunate political, fiscal, and medical circumstances. Readers will learn aboutan extraordinary treatment for acute stroke that they may then seek if a stroke occurs and anyone interested in the unique process of drug development, marketing, and promotion, told from an insider's perspective, will have an interest intPA for Stroke.

Justin Zivin is a Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego. He holds both MD and PhD degrees from Northwestern University, and was trained as a neurologist at the University of California San Francisco. For more than thirty years he has conducted research in acute stroke therapy both for basic science studies and clinical trials. He has been continuously funded for this research by federal agencies since 1979.John Galbraith Simmons studied philosophy at Northwestern University, graduating with honors, and also holds a degree in developmental studies from Long Island University. He has published four novels, written for television and film, and is also the author of The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present and Doctors and Discoveries: Lives That Created Today's Medicine. He lives in New York and Paris.