Gulp.
Forget Lord Byron.
The person perhaps most deserving of the famous epithet “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” is a fictional one — Jack Reacher who goes by “Reacher” only in the celebrated series by the author Lee Child. Reacher is a super-swole, vigilante vagabond detective with a strong moral compass who crisscrosses the country on a quixotic quest to protect the innocent from depraved bad guys.
This description also embodies how we think about lead protective EpicentRx therapy, RRx-001 (nibrozetone). Currently in two ongoing late-stage clinical trials, REPLATINUM and KEVLARx, for the treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and severe oral mucositis, RRx-001 circulates through the body, Reacher-like, settling scores with conditions and diseases of unmet medical need whenever — and wherever — it encounters them. These conditions and diseases include SCLC, severe oral mucositis, xerostomia, endometriosis, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)/motor neuron disease (MND). A large grant was also recently awarded to evaluate RRx-001 as a neuroprotectant against toxic central nervous system (CNS) exposures.
Unlike the 6’5” Jack Reacher, RRx-001 is small and much more reminiscent of the pint-sized Tom Cruise, who plays him with genuine intensity in the movies, than the physically intimidating Alan Ritchson, who exudes laidback muscular menace in the eponymous Amazon TV series. Nevertheless, being small is no more a hindrance for RRx-001 than for superstar Tom Cruise, as the diminutive size of RRx-001 means it can access most, if not all, organs and tissues through the bloodstream, including the central nervous system.
Besides playing Jack Reacher, the actor Alan Ritchson also starred as the jerky, way-less-jacked, and hilariously debaucherous linebacker, Thad Castle, in the Animal House-esque comedy series, Blue Mountain State, about a Division 1 Midwestern college football team.
For this reason, this post could have also been titled, “Mad, Thad, and Dangerous To Know”.