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can certain diseases/illnesses be cured
boykster:
No 2 cancers are alike, and no 2 cancer patients, even with the same "type" of cancer are exactly alike.
Yes, money can offer treatment courses that insurance companies would be unwilling to pay for, but money by itself cannot cure cancer or any other disease.
Dartful Dodger:
--- Quote from: boykster on March 28, 2008, 04:49:28 pm ---Yes, money can offer treatment courses that insurance companies would be unwilling to pay for, but money by itself cannot cure cancer or any other disease.
--- End quote ---
The first part of your statement explains how money can, then the second part says money can't.
I don't think he's talking about liquidating $180,000 and injecting it into the blood stream to cure AIDs.
About 10 years ago I had this same conversation with a friend of mine. He pointed out that if Reagan can't get a special cure, no one can. That sort of put things in perspective for me. I believe there are cures that you can only get access to if you have a lot of money, but not everything has a cure.
Jdurg:
I work in the pharmaceutical industry, and you would be AMAZED at how much money is spent each year on new compounds in the hopes that they can cure a condition or disease. The sad thing is, for safety or efficacy reasons, close to 95% of these new compounds never make it to market. Many people who have conditions such as cancer, or HIV Positive, or Hypercholesterolema, etc. have plenty of access to the thousands of clinical trials going on across the world right now. When subjects participate in these trials, they are made aware of any possible side effects or problems that can happen because of the compound. Still, even if a drug gets to market it can have side effects that the manufacturers were not made aware of. Sadly, that results in lawsuits and retaliation from the public so many companies are less and less willing to release compounds to market.
In case you're interested in how drugs are created and get to market, virtually all of them follow the process seen below;
1): Chemist develops new compound.
2): Compound is run through massive computer network which checks to see if it is similar to any known substance out there. (This helps in the next step).
3): The compound is simulated through an enormous computer system to see if it has any chance at being effective, and to see if it has any potentially deadly/disabling side effects.
4): If the compound passes step three, it goes into the animal testing phase to see if the drug will be safe in living beings.
5): If the drug passes the animal testing phase, it will be sent on to Phase 1 Clinical Trials. Phase 1 trials are done to see how safe the drug is in human beings and how human beings metabolise the compound. Minimal doses are used at this stage, and the trials typically last a few weeks.
6): The drug then goes on to Phase 2 trials where they are tested at various doses to see if they are effective at all, and to see what the optimal dose is. Most drugs die at this stage due to ineffectiveness, or poor safety characteristics.
7): If a drug is termed effective, longer term (Phase 3)trials take place to ensure that they are safe and no nasty side effects take place. (I believe it was durng Phase 3 Trials that Sildenafil Citrate was discovered to have positive benefits for ED Patients).
8): After Phase 3 trials, drugs are typically sent off to the FDA and other approval agencies for mass marketing and distribution.
9): Once Phase 3 trials are done, Phase 4 trials take place. These are typically VERY long trials which take place over a course of 5 to 6 years to see if there are any long term effects from this drug. If any are ever found, the labels with the drugs are updated or if they are severe enough, the drugs are taken off the market.
All of this work requires work by a HUGE number of people (myself included) to ensure that they are safe and effective. All of these people need to be paid for their insane work hours and amount of work that goes into this. Hence why drugs aren't cheap.
Now what does all this have to do with the ability to cure a disease or illness? Well, most insurance companies won't pay for drugs that haven't passed their longer term clinical trials with flying colors. As a result, it may be more difficult for people to get these successful Phase 4 compounds. However, when participating in a clinical trial the drug and nearly all other tests and procedures are paid for by the sponsor. (The pharmaceutical company). So I really don't think the "money" helps people with diseases/illnesses. It's just that we hear more about celebrities who fight these diseases/conditions because of the fact that they are celebrities. There are certainly just as many people who aren't in the public spotlight who are fighting these diseases and winning.
I've been an insulin dependent diabetic for 26+ years now without ANY complications at all. That is nearly unheard of. So there are sick people out there who are just able to fight things off without problems. The human body is an incredible machine and we still don't know 1/100th of what it can do. :cheers:
shmokes:
A cure would never be held back. If you have a cure for cancer, no matter what the price, you will release it to the public so that more people can afford it. People will insist that their insurance companies cover it, and then the cost of the ultra-expensive cure will be cost-spread over all the insurance company's customers. The last thing a pharmaceutical company wants is to hold back a drug, only to have some other company develop a similar compound, patent it, and bring it to market.
In order to reasonably suggest that cures are being withheld, you have to point how that can possibly benefit the company who made the cure. If they're in it to help people, they release it to the public. If they're in it for the money. They release it to the public. If they're in it to be diabolical . . . well, I guess you have me there.
shmokes:
Oh yeah . . . my brother's boyfriend has tested negative for HIV for at least a decade and he used to test positive. But he has to pop a bunch of pills every day. I'm pretty sure that he will start testing positive again if he goes of his suppression drugs.
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