Neupogen

Today, I was scheduled to receive the chemotherapy that was originally scheduled for last Friday, but my white blood cell count proved to be too low.  Instead, I received an injection of Neupogen and am scheduled to receive another tomorrow, with the goal of increasing my white blood cell count enough for me to receive chemotherapy Thursday.  

BioVex

Today, privately held BioVex, Inc., announced that it raised $40,000,000 in a first close of a Series F round of financing.  BioVex will use the proceeds of this financing to fund a phase III study in metastatic melanoma with its lead cancer product, OncoVEXGM-CSF.

One of the previous investors in BioVex that participated in this financing was Harris & Harris Group, Inc., the firm that I was associated with from 1984 through the end of 2008.  I always felt privileged to get to spend the final years of my career making the sorts of investments that Harris & Harris Group makes.  As an early-stage, venture-capital firm, Harris & Harris Group helps to develop, and puts capital behind, worthy ideas, intellectual property, and people.

Because I lack both proclivity for, and training in, science and technology, I never thought that I was qualified to be a venture capitalist.  (I made sure to surround myself with people who were fully qualified.)  Nevertheless, I thought that I had  a useful role to play, because I seemed to be willing to take chances occasionally on people and projects that were not deemed fundable at the time by my peers.

There are a number of companies in Harris & Harris Group's current portfolio of approximately 30 privately held, risky companies that could, if they reach their potential, make a difference in the lives of people (as well as make a lot of money for Harris & Harris Group and its shareholders).  Harris & Harris Group has actually played a much more central role in many of these companies than it has in BioVex, and BioVex is not its only portfolio company developing cancer therapeutics.  But imagine if just BioVex, among Harris & Harris Group's portfolio of companies, reaches its potential and brings to market a cancer vaccine?  Thinking of the lives that may be saved, and the suffering that may be averted, it seems to me that my entire career was more than well spent if only for having been in the position to aid in this one effort.

A Short Walk

I had a little more strength today and went for a short walk with my son -- 0.68 miles, according to the pedometer that a friend recently sent me. We also watched Tiger Woods win the Bay Hill golf tourament. I was a little ambivalent about rooting for Woods after he threw golf clubs three times. But when one invests the time to watch a golf tournament on television, it is hard to complain about such a payoff -- getting to see another dramatic victory by what must be the greatest clutch performer in the history of sports.

A Quiet Saturday

Aside from a brief scheduled trip to the hospital for some follow-up care, we spent a quiet day at home. I was tired from yesterday, so I just read a bit, and handicapped and watched some races on television with my son (we might have seen two really good contenders for the Kentucky Derby in today's first two finishers in the Florida Derby, Quality Road and Dunkirk).

A Twelve-Hour Day

We left home at 8:15 a.m. to go to the hospital to have the infection caused by the implantation of the Mediport checked. At 1:30 p.m., we went back to the hospital when the infection appeared to worsen. At 8:20 p.m., we arrived back home.  In the interim, the Mediport was removed, implantation of a PICC through my right arm was attempted unsuccessfully because of thrombosis caused by implantation on March 12 and removal on March 15 of a PICC through the same arm, and a PICC was subsequently implanted through my left arm, where it now resides. A PICC, like a Mediport, enables infusion of chemotherapy. 

I opted to undergo these procedures under local anesthesia on the understanding that, if I did so, I would have to stay in the recovery room for only an hour. But bureaucracy prevailed, the computerized instructions to the recovery room were botched, and the nurse wouldn't let me go home for the better part of three hours.

An Infinitesimal Chance

Yesterday, before consenting to having the Mediport installed, I was told by the interventional radiologist who would perform the procedure that there was "an infinitesimal chance" of infection. I got infected. I was given intravenous antibiotics today for the infection and will not be given chemotherapy tomorrow as previously scheduled.

Mediport

Much of my day was spent undergoing a scheduled, minor surgical procedure to install a Mediport.  A Mediport is an implanted device that enables better infusion of chemotherapy.