Germany's Paion is developing a clot-buster originally found in the venom of vampire bats.

FORBES: Winning A Battle In The War On Stroke

One is to pair a better clot-buster with a technique for selecting patients most likely to benefit from it.

FORBES: Brain Repair

Copies of top-selling medicines like Amgen 's Epogen, for anemia, or the clot-buster Lovenox, made by Sanofi-Aventis, could be the new me-too drugs.

FORBES

Their hope is that such a drug would be precious to patients with ischemic strokes and, unlike clot-buster drugs, harmless to those with hemorrhagic strokes.

FORBES: Brain Repair

Another big hope: Alfimiprase, a clot-buster developed by San Carlos, Calif.

FORBES: Avaricious In Germany

At least 20 antistroke compounds have entered large human trials in recent years after promising lab results, but only one, Genentech's clot-buster Activase, has made it to the market.

FORBES: Brain Repair