On the Greek island of Rhodes
Probably about 1984
This is something you all
should read. It is enlightening,
engaging, and easy going. The fact that
I fell asleep half way through it – on each of two readings, two days apart –
remains unexplained.
http://www.propublica.org/article/where-are-the-low-cost-cancer-treatments
If you read this article, here are some of the things you will learn:
If you read this article, here are some of the things you will learn:
What are “financial orphan” drugs and why are they orphaned?
Why Big Pharma wants you to take drugs at $10K per hit,
rather than aspirin at 3 cents.
Why there are no cheap cancer cures, or damned few.
When reading this article, here are a few things to keep in
mind:
Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, etc. – Big Pharma – are
corporations designed specifically to make money for their investors. They are not charities. Exxon Mobil makes money selling gasoline to
people who need it to make their cars go.
Big Pharma makes money selling drugs to people who need them to remain
alive. Both do what you might call Pro
Bono work; selling at a loss or giving their products (or money) away, to benefit
mankind. They do it to stay in the good
graces of the buying public. Corporations
do not have hearts; they do not get warm, fuzzy feelings from doing good. To expect otherwise is foolish.
Medical practitioners practice in a fearsome world, where
any mistake can cost them dearly. Their
CYA instincts are powerful. They will
not risk using a therapy that is not approved by the FDA, the NIH, and 95% of
the other doctors in their field. To
expect otherwise is, well, foolish.
Obtaining such approval requires clinical trials that,
currently, cost unbelievable amounts of money.
Part of this money, but less than half – and dwindling – is provided by
the government. The rest comes from
private individuals, NGOs (charities like the Rivkin Foundation) and -
overwhelmingly – Big Pharma.
“Alternative medicine” can refer to the utterly unscientific
– rubbing beet juice into your scalp to prevent hair loss - but it
equally well can denote treatments with strong scientific underpinnings,
but which – for economic reasons, usually – have not obtained official
approval.
So. Read the article,
and don’t fall asleep. Sample questions
for the exam:
What is Global Cures, and what is its web site?
How does a drug or treatment become a “financial orphan”?
What is “ketorolac”, and why doesn’t your doctor prescribe
it for you?
I’m home and trying to plant my garden. The house was spotless. I have been home three days now, and it isn’t
any more.
Here is a thoughtful commentary on drug-pricing, written from the point of view of business.
ReplyDeletehttp://online.wsj.com/articles/the-medical-innovation-threat-1408489613
Big (and Little) Pharma churn out lots of cancer drugs, most of which die in clinical trial. But that doesn’t require the drug developer to dump all remaining supplies in the Pacific Ocean, burn the “formula”, and deport all the scientists that worked on it shipped to North Korea. No, the drug lingers on somewhere, or somehow. Now some smart people have done the obvious: created a computer algorithm that uses advanced sources of genetic information (e.g. TCGA – which Google) to find potential alternative uses for these “failed” drugs. So what if a concoction fails to cure shingles – maybe it will fix chronic bad breath!
ReplyDeleteIt takes a lot of computing power to do this. Maybe even machine learning.(?) Anyway, they’re trying. Let’s hope.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-11-drugs.html