Word: alg
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...They were dying, Najarian knew, mainly because of tissue rejection. Their immune systems targeted transplanted organs as foreign and marshaled white blood cells to destroy the invaders. But Najarian saw a solution. With a colleague, he worked out a method for purifying a new drug called antilymphocyte globulin, or ALG, a potent cocktail of antibodies capable of countering the lethal reaction...
Minnesota ALG, as it became known, turned out to be highly effective. As patient survival rates improved, other surgeons clamored to get hold of the potion. Between 1970, when Najarian obtained permis-sion from the FDA to produce and use the compound on an experimental basis, and 1992, when the FDA shut down the operation, Minnesota ALG was shipped to 175 transplant centers around the world and was used by more than 50,000 patients. Along the way, it generated an estimated $80 million in revenues, enough to finance a $13 million production facility on the University of Minnesota...