Comments on: Running Interference for the RNA Interference Breakthrough

By: Kodger

Kodger — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:35:44 +0000

“Loss Leader”, “Lost Litre”, or “Loss Litre” mean essentially the same thing.

All 3 refer to the marketing practice of selling a product at or less than margin to entice customers into the store so that the consumer may then elect to buy something else, which the store sells at a profit.

If I recall correctly, the origin of the phrase comes from the marketing concept of selling a litre (liter) of milk below cost to promote traffic into the merchant’s store….since “litre” and “leader” sound similar many use the word “leader” especially in the USA because the metric system is not used there by consumers and so many persons are not familiar with the word.

By: Chemist

Chemist — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:10:45 +0000

loss leader or lost litre?

By: REAL Biochemist

REAL Biochemist — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:37:40 +0000

Oh dear, you really should have sought an opinion from someone other than your “friend who is the director of chemistry at a drug-discovery shop up in the Boston biocluster and who follows RNAi as an amateur stock analyst” and whom you later describe as a “biochemistâ€“slashâ€“amateur stock analyst” .

I am a REAL biochemist PhD with 30 years research experience, now with a large multinational pharmaceutical company, and I can state categorically that Point 3: “Disease target” is actually the other way around. Disease is generally associated with over-expression of genes or expression of a mutant form of the natural gene. These are ideal targets for RNAi treatment and Alnylam, which owns most of the intellectual property in the arena, and has now demonstrated human proof-of-concept, has a very, very, very bright future. So, in my extensive experience, your “friend” misses it on both counts – as a scientist and as an analyst.

REAL Biochemist

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:17:27 +0000

Well done and balanced article.

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:09:08 +0000

Although I agree that based on these results RNAi is not yet ready to replace many small molecule blockbuster drugs, there is nothing wrong with the target disease selection. RSV has been used extensively as a target for antisense drugs (look up some of Paul torrence papers on 2-5A-DNA antisense agents). Also, let’s not forget that it took Isis years and years to successfully get past intra-ocular administration of their antisense drugs, so we cannot realistically expect Alnylam to be able to immediately show proof of concept with systemic administration of their RNAi drug.

It is very hard to show an effect of any gene silencing drug in a whole animal, so being the first to accomplish that in humans with a novel approach is quite an achievement. I agree it is not a moonwalk, but at least it is starting to look like a spaceship….