Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices

Re:Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices by btilly on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @08:52AM (#9652129)

Not just lack of R&D. After expenses for FDA clinical trials is $150 million+. Nobody can afford that if they don't have a patent letting them recoup expenses.

My go to example for this is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy. That is the treatment of autoimmune diseases by infecting people with parasites which suppress your immune system in a targeted way for their own protection. I personally know someone who successfully treated his Crohn's disease with hookworm for 5 years and counting now, and the main problem he has is that if he ever needs antibiotics he needs to get reinfected because antibiotics will kill the hookworm.

But it is illegal to receive this treatment in the US because the FDA has never approved it.

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Re:Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices by lg on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @11:41AM (#9653370)

a company did conduct clinical trials of a helminthic therapy for crohn's, it didn't do well: http://www.drugs.com/clinical_trials/coronado-biosciences-ha...

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Re:Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices by btilly on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @01:39PM (#9654419)

Thank you for that information.

I note it wasn't hookworm, which is what helped my friend.

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Re:Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices by pkaye on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @10:16AM (#9652677)

I really think medical trials is something that the world government should sponsor so that treatments are accessible to everyone. Maybe each country contributes some small percent of their GDP.

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Re:Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices by kefka on Wednesday June 03, 2015 @12:37PM (#9653839)

And that's a traditional game theory solution. If I pay less, I still get full access to new drugs.

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Re:Cancer Doctor Leading the Attack on Astronomical Drug Prices by pkaye on Thursday June 04, 2015 @08:48PM (#9663196)

Well that already happens. Lets make it more obvious who contributes what.

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