Properly mixed, the medicine came out as a dark brown liquid. A nurse brought the intravenous bag to the side of a recliner, where a man with brain cancer sat. The nurse hung the plump bag on a stand and prepared the treatment for delivery. The moment had arrived for BXQ-350 to meet its first human patient.
For the man, and for the medicine, the stakes could not have been higher.
BXQ-350, by Bexion Pharmaceuticals of Covington, Kentucky, is a first-of-its-kind cancer treatment, a new approach discovered, developed and tested in Greater Cincinnati. The innovative drug is made from a human protein and does something unlike any other: It weaponizes the special mechanics of cancer to destroy it, without affecting healthy cells.
That the treatment killed nothing but cancer so jarred federal regulators that they had demanded more research in animals. But on a September day in 2016 at the University of Cincinnati’s Barrett Cancer Center, brainpower and money at last brought BXQ-350 to a critical first test for government approval.
In the infusion center, the nurse asked Bob Rulli of Fort Thomas if he was ready. She aimed the needle and punctured his arm. Patient No. 1 watched his body take in the dark brown mystery.
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