One man’s mission to revive a forgotten, life-saving cancer drug

Dutch immunologist Jacques Neefjes believes the drug aclarubicin, unavailable in Europe for 20 years, could have helped 100,000 people with a rare blood cancer

For the past decade, the Dutch immunologist Jacques (Sjaak) Neefjes has been on a mission to bring back a cancer drug that hasn't been available in Europe since 2004. I'm still flabbergasted that a compound that could have helped thousands of people was taken off the market," says Neefjes. Why it was removed seems something of a mystery, but as far as he can tell, it was simply a lack of demand.

His latest research shows that this drug, aclarubicin, can improve the survival of people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) much better than other forms of chemotherapy. If it had been available in Europe for the past 20 years, Neefjes estimates that it could have helped 100,000 people.