[h2odragon]

Gee whiz this is a great chemical, let's find something it's good for and perhaps we'll be able to make money on it someday...

Seems like a really long diversion from the original goals, doesn't it? "People have problem A and i want to test solution X for effectiveness" was the first principle, right? Now it sounds a lot like "we bought tons of this crap now we've gotta push it somehow"

[klevertree]

Trying to cure a disease that gives cats such bad mouth sores that they sometimes can't even drink water isn't exactly "pushing crap".

We're trying to make it to profitability so we can get to the point where we can test the solution in humans who have neurodegeneration. When you're dealing with incredibly complex regulatory environments and millions of dollars in development costs, it's not always easy to make it from point A to point B. That's the point of this post.

[awillen]

That's the real world for you. Sometimes companies end up seeing success after long diversions from real goals, because the world throws obstacles at them that require them to adapt.

Seems like the alternative here is to do nothing, so finding a productive but realistic path forward is a better alternative. I think it's clearly wrong to call running studies in animals "pushing it" on anyone.

[bennyp101]

Yea, isn't that how Viagra came about - "Well it doesn't the blood vessels quite like we wanted, but .... well it does this!"

[vrc]

And Rogaine. It was also created to treat High BP as a powerful vasodilator. Turns out it made you hairy too. Maybe we should spend all of our R&D pursuing High BP -- who knows what other ailments we'll cure!

[therein]

I mentioned this before in HN, will mention again. There is definitely something about vasodilation and hair growth/mobility, especially when it comes to in-grown facial hair.

If you have in-grown hairs, take Viagra once and they'll start coming out in a few hours on their own or with minimal mechanical force. The effect continues for a day or two so I am sure even the secondary metabolites might be somewhat active in inducing this effect.

[refurb]

Shocker how one needs to find resources to actually do things, huh?