Chasing Hope by Richard M. Cohen

Author:Richard M. Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Great Bone Marrow Harvest

A few months after my thorough examination by Dr. Sadiq, I had another appointment with him. That day, as I climbed down from the examination table, Sadiq, unprompted, spoke the magic words: stem cell therapy. He told me he believed an answer to his application would be coming from the FDA in a week or so. I waited for him to say something else, but that’s all I got.

I wondered if Sadiq was optimistic about the trial being approved. He was inscrutable, offering no hint of what he expected, though I thought I saw doubt in his eyes. For the first time since I had known him, Sadiq appeared weary. His entire life was built around finding the cause and cure for MS. It dawned on me how much was at stake not just for Sadiq’s patients but for Sadiq himself.

“If I don’t discover the cause of the disease, I will consider myself a failure,” he had told me during one of our discussions in his private office. He meant it, I was certain. I had tried to point out that he gives so much to patients. Doesn’t that count for anything? I asked. He just shook his head.

The following week, in mid-August, Sadiq got word that the trial had been approved. It had been three years since he had applied to the FDA. I happened to be at the MS center the day after news of the trial hit the wires. The air was electric. The office had exploded in excitement. Happy voices still echoed down the corridors of the clinic and throughout the research facilities. Everyone seemed thrilled. Phones rang out in celebration. Even the lab rats were smiling.

The news was a big deal. The press release the MS center sent out was picked up by newspapers around the world and was all over the Internet. “The Tisch MS Research Center of New York announced today that it has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commence a Phase 1 trial using autologous neural stem cells in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS).”

Sadiq was widely quoted: “To my knowledge, this is the first FDA-approved stem cell trial in the United States to investigate direct injection of stem cells into the cerebrospinal fluid of MS patients, and represents an exciting advance in MS research and treatment.” One medical newswire called the trial “a groundbreaking strategy . . . for the treatment of MS.”

Sadiq had gotten what he wanted. I was happy for him, but had no clue what it would mean for me. The man of the hour had a huge patient base, with lots of folks to choose from. I stayed silent, carrying around a lump in the pit of my stomach. I was in and out of the center that day and saw Sadiq briefly, but he didn’t offer anything about whether I would be involved in the trial, and I did not ask.

One afternoon, Sadiq invited me in for a meeting in his private office.

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