On Oct. 19, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug, Gleevec developed by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Cancer Institute researcher Brian Druker, M.D., to be used as an effective treatment for five more cancers.

Gleevec, a yellow-colored pill marketed by Novartis since 2001, was the first approved drug to directly turn off the signal of a protein known to cause cancer.