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Hope Lies in Dreams
Stan Crooke rose from poverty to found a company that pioneered antisense drugs. After decades of struggle and years of public doubt, the company created a treatment that has saved thousands of children from the brutal disease spinal muscular atrophy.
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1. Chapter 1: an ugly place
32:02Stan Crooke is born ⬩ A tenuous existence ⬩ Life with his mother ⬩ The Tech Corner ⬩ Arsenal Tech High School ⬩ Nancy ⬩ Hoodlum ways ⬩ Off to Purdue
2. Chapter 2: a winding path
46:37Quits Purdue ⬩ Pharmacy school ⬩ Off to Baylor ⬩ Harris Busch ⬩ Bristol Labs ⬩ SmithKline ⬩ The death of Nancy Crooke ⬩ The end of SmithKline
3. Chapter 3: San Diego restart
47:35Rosanne ⬩ An investor emerges ⬩ Founding Isis ⬩ The old garage ⬩ A proper space ⬩ A growing antisense scene ⬩ Starting a pipeline ⬩ Isis goes public
4. Chapter 4: three kinds of failure
43:47Stumbling out of the gate ⬩ Launch of Vitravene ⬩ Questions about antisense ⬩ The field thins ⬩ Clinical failure ⬩ The darkest days
5. Chapter 5: valley of antisense
41:37The genomics bubble ⬩ Affinitak fails ⬩ Lynne saves the company ⬩ Hybridon pivots ⬩ New chemistries ⬩ Regulus formed ⬩ Isis as cult
6. Chapter 6: lone voice in the wilderness
43:12Rosanne saves the company ⬩ Ibis is sold ⬩ An approval ⬩ Souring on Genzyme ⬩ The end of Genta ⬩ The discovery of the SMA gene