Masato Tanabe's team at SRI has focused on the development of steroid hormones. A compound discovered in a previous SRI contract from the
National Institutes of Health showed potential – it acted like "anti-estrogen" in the breasts and uterus but like normal estrogen elsewhere in the body, and was more "tissue-selective". A contract was proposed to
Taiho Pharmaceutical in July 1996, and within six years and slightly under $3 million (an unusually short amount of time), two new drugs were discovered and tested on people (particularly people for which
tamoxifen has failed): SR-16234 and SR-16287. and Phase III studies are being planned. == See also ==