Ten years ago, representatives from Japan's Ono Pharmaceutical Co. went from hospital to hospital, attempting to convince doctors to test a new product under development: drugs that helped the body's immune system fight cancer. But nobody would listen.
Immunotherapy was another fad, they were told. The treatment probably offered no bigger benefit than eating mushrooms to fight cancer, one critic opined. Another said he'd shave his head if it worked.
Ono's Chief Executive Officer Gyo Sagara says he received plenty of apologies when Opdivo, the drug the Japanese company worked on with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., got the green light from regulators. The drug's approval in Japan 20 months ago was the first worldwide in a new class of cancer treatments called PD-1 inhibitors.