The scientists determined that the body breaks down sulindac into two components, but then got bogged down in a debate about which of these components to pursue.
Coincidentally, Burt had just heard University of Colorado surgeon William Waddell tell a scientific meeting that he had seen an aspirin-like arthritis drug called sulindac (Merck .
Johns Hopkins' Giardiello eventually showed that drugs like sulindac work by restoring the natural process of cell death in the colon.