Trastuzumab is a drug that was first discovered at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center by scientists Dr. Axel Ullrich and Dr. H. Michael Shepard. UCLA along with Genentech, a biotechnology corporation, developed trastuzumab. The drug showed overall improvement in the survival rate of patients in the late stages of HER2-positive breast cancer. Together in 1992, UCLA and Genentech started the first clinical trial with 15 women and by 1996 the trial included over 900 women. Due to the drugs impressive results, advocates had pressured Genentech into working along side with the FDA to begin a lottery, which allowed women outside the trials to have access to the medication. In September 1998, under the name of Herceptin, trastuzumab gained
