From biological weapon to cosmetic product is crazy

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    All those glp-1 agonists that are all the rage right now are because scientists recognized the gila lizard can go long periods without eating while keeping its blood sugar stable and studied its venom

    The current drugs like ozempic are synthetic though, no actual gila venom

    Also fun fact: the guy that discovered the effect figured it out in the early 90s and actually patented it himself because for years no one was interested. Pharmaceutical industry was apparently “disinterested” and it wasn’t moved forward until 2002 (exenatide/byetta, a precursor to more efficacious drugs like tirzepatide/zepbound/mounjaro, which coincidentally made Eli Lilly the most valuable drug company in the world. Another fun fact is that Lilly partnered with another smaller company to make exenatide then Lilly dissolved the partnership in 2011, allowing the smaller company to keep the rights, likely because they saw the opportunity for the next steps)

      • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        They (all corporations,) are run by money grubbers, not experts in the fields they are managing. Pfizer’s executives probably don’t know shit about drugs.

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Funny enough the NIH funded research was cited by republicans like Rand Paul in their wastebook as an example of some “dumb bullshit” that we are wasting our money on. Funnier enough this practice was started by a Democrat in the 70s and 80s (William proxmire from Wisconsin and his “Golden Fleece awards”)