cancer cure found - but there's no money in it

cancer cure found - but there's no money in it

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Discussion

Blackpuddin

Original Poster:

16,615 posts

206 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
If this is true, then it's the ultimate condemnation of where Western society has got to.
http://www.moneytrendsresearch.com/scientists-cure...

boobles

15,241 posts

216 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
They make money out of diseases & if this drug was prescibed to treat certain cancers, they wouldn't be making any money. Hence expensive medication. Sad but true!

Timsta

2,779 posts

247 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Turns out it's not as good as the artice makes out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichloroacetic_acid#P...

MilnerR

8,273 posts

259 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
It went through phase 2 trials and failed to meet it's endpoints, also suffers from a number of poorly understood tox issues, so the chances of getting approval are essentially zero (tox issues can be mitigated by efficacy, low efficacy mitigated by low tox, this CD suffers tox and low efficacy). It joins a very long list of cures for cancer that don't meet the grade! There's no sinister story behind this. Go read the literature and come back

edited as my estimation of costs was wrong


Edited by MilnerR on Monday 19th March 13:56

Ayahuasca

27,427 posts

280 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Whilst the drug companies may have little interest in developing it, if it were as good as described I would expect doctors to be clamouring to use it - is there any evidence that they are?

hyperblue

2,803 posts

181 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
boobles said:
They make money out of diseases & if this drug was prescibed to treat certain cancers, they wouldn't be making any money. Hence expensive medication. Sad but true!
Except any company who had developed a cure for cancer could charge what they liked...

MilnerR

8,273 posts

259 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Ayahuasca said:
Whilst the drug companies may have little interest in developing it, if it were as good as described I would expect doctors to be clamouring to use it - is there any evidence that they are?
Getting drugs approved for specific indications is ruinously expensive, Drs can't give you any old thing in the hope it works, their prescribing has to be evidence based. This candidate drug failed to meet its clinical trial outcomes and had poorly understood tox issues. As I said this isn't a story, I could list 30 compounds that are more promising than this which have ended up in the bin despite having billions spent on them. Failure rate runs at over 95% in successful pharma companies!

turbobloke

104,131 posts

261 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Timsta said:
Turns out it's not as good as the artice makes out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichloroacetic_acid#P...
Unfortunaely it's the case that Wiki cannot be trusted in several scientific areas and NS is little better but maybe this one is closer to the mark bearing in mind this extract.

Wiki said that New Scientist said:
For now, however, it remains experimental, never yet properly tested in a person with cancer.
So the matter remains unresolved but with no less potential for that.

MilnerR said:
Go read the literature and come back
Fair point, can you offer a precis of the research itself as opposed to an overview of the situation, as you gave no links or references?

8Ace

2,696 posts

199 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Sounds like bunkum to me. Paracetamol isn't patented yet people make money out of making it. Given that 1 in 3 of us get cancer there's plenty to be made from this as a generic.

As said earlier, there is a better reason re: toxicity and eficacy. If this functional group is as good as the article suggests, then a drug could be developed that utilises and improves the efficacy but at lower tox levels. This COULD then be patented and, if successful, woudl be an instant blockbuster.




davepoth

29,395 posts

200 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
8Ace said:
Sounds like bunkum to me. Paracetamol isn't patented yet people make money out of making it. Given that 1 in 3 of us get cancer there's plenty to be made from this as a generic.
That's not the problem though. "Big Pharma" makes a lot of money from horrendously expensive cancer drugs, and if all of a sudden it turns out that cancer can be cured with something very cheap (not saying this is the thing of course) then their business is in a bit of trouble.

matchmaker

8,510 posts

201 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
8Ace said:
Paracetamol isn't patented yet people make money out of making it.
A lot of money - Panadol is Paracetamol and costs £1 a pack. Generic Paracetamol is 16p a pack in my local Tesco.

8Ace

2,696 posts

199 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
davepoth said:
That's not the problem though. "Big Pharma" makes a lot of money from horrendously expensive cancer drugs, and if all of a sudden it turns out that cancer can be cured with something very cheap (not saying this is the thing of course) then their business is in a bit of trouble.
I agree that The industry does make a lot of money from some drugs, but as stated above, 95% of even the most promising leads don't make it to market. The clinical development costs are staggering (think hundreds of millions of pounds) and you patent the drug at the point the lead is first isolated. It then has another 10 years+ of trials before getting to market, and in some cases, the exclusivity period before the generic manufacturers can nick your hard work is only a few years. Given the staggering cost base the charges have to be high to enable the companies to continue.

There's plenty to go wrong with the human body. One wonder compound that cured cancer, even if this did exist, would still give plenty of scope for Pharma to develop other drugs to treat all sorts of other ailments.

smegmore

3,091 posts

177 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
matchmaker said:
A lot of money - Panadol is Paracetamol and costs £1 a pack. Generic Paracetamol is 16p a pack in my local Tesco.
O/T slightly, but relevant I think.

When I worked in Nigeria there were 3 main anti-malaria meds IIRC:
Malarone
Lariam
(Both with nasty mental side effects for some, taken weekly)
Doxycycline (An antibiotic, taken daily)

One ancient Septic who'd been out there for years asked me 'Why you takin' all that st? one brewers yeast tablet per day and the mossies won't come near you'

Cost? For the prescribed meds, no idea but can't be as cheap as brewers yeast at tuppence a bucketful so the pharmaceuticals will push which one(s)?

Oakey

27,595 posts

217 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
davepoth said:
That's not the problem though. "Big Pharma" makes a lot of money from horrendously expensive cancer drugs, and if all of a sudden it turns out that cancer can be cured with something very cheap (not saying this is the thing of course) then their business is in a bit of trouble.
And of course, as well know, the employees, families and friends of 'Big Pharma' are all completely immune from cancer.

MilnerR

8,273 posts

259 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Oakey said:
And of course, as well know, the employees, families and friends of 'Big Pharma' are all completely immune from cancer.
They give us a special injection when we sign our first contract (in blood)


Oakey

27,595 posts

217 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
MilnerR said:
They give us a special injection when we sign our first contract (in blood)
Not to mention that none of the 'Big Pharmas' don't want any of the publicity or accolades that would come from being the first to cure cancer.

davepoth

29,395 posts

200 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
Oakey said:
Not to mention that none of the 'Big Pharmas' don't want any of the publicity or accolades that would come from being the first to cure cancer.
You can't buy Porsches with accolades. wink

dmulally

6,211 posts

181 months

Monday 19th March 2012
quotequote all
My twin brother has HIV and I remember years ago having a rant about how they will never find a cure as there is no money in it. He told me that he believes that for the small team/person who crack the case there will be a nobel prize in it for them and that will be incentive enough.

Having spent most of last year going through radio therapy for cancer I found it was relatively inexpensive compared to what my brother has to cough up for ongoing meds.

EDLT

15,421 posts

207 months

Tuesday 20th March 2012
quotequote all
Blackpuddin said:
If this is true, then it's the ultimate condemnation of where Western society has got to.
http://www.moneytrendsresearch.com/scientists-cure...
That website looks entirely believable, and not like a tarted up blog for tin foil hat wearers.

hornet

6,333 posts

251 months

Tuesday 20th March 2012
quotequote all
EDLT said:
That website looks entirely believable, and not a tarted up blog for tin foil hat wearers.
Be ironic if it turned out tin foil headgear gave you cancer...