I was talking to somebody about how some cures seem to be on the horizon now. He said there was no incentive for companies to find a cure, especially with a disease that makes so much money with products like diabetes does (i.e., pumps, syringes, insulin, etc.). Anybody have articles, blogs, conversations, etc. on conspiracy theories like this? What's your thoughts on this?
personally, i think conspiracy theories are bull shit. no company wants to keep people sick to make money. especially when there are other illnesses out there in which they can make money off of. they could potentially make more money off a cure. cures cost money just like treatment and prevention do. everyday more people would develop diabetes, so every day more people would need to be 'cured' of it.
I just doubt that cure will ever originate from one of those companies. They're not there to cure us, they're their to make money while helping us manage our chronic disease. I'm not saying they'd hold back a cure that they knew of, but they are businesses that focus on helping us live will with our chronic disease.
I just think it'll be come from some JDRF-funded researcher in the basement of a university science building or something, you know? And those companies won't send out a hitman to take him down before he tells the world, but some of the business men and women who run them won't jump and cheer... because they'll be too busy figuring out where else to make their money.
Well, some of them will jump and cheer for us. I have to believe that some of them do what they do for the "right reasons."
You may have opened a can of worms, because there are a lot of people I've seen on here who are positive that the companies are secretly trying to prevent a cure to make more money. I would go with a simpler, more common sense answer myself! I just don't think we've had enough money put into the research yet, and also, the science is still catching up with some of the ideas (e.g., how to avoid taking anti-rejection drugs, how to calm the immune response). I've NEVER seen actual proof of any conspiracy theory provided by anyone. Also, good point made before that if some company came up with a cure, they could make money from it, as well as getting a lot of good PR for their other products.
If I were a drug company trying to make money off of preventing a cure for a disease, Type I diabetes would not be the best choice. Realistically, while sure all our crap costs alot, we are still a very small percentage of the population. I don't know actual numbers, but I feel as though we are generally an unpredictable bunch as well. It's not really possible to "predict" who is gonna get this, versus stuff like heart disease, and Type II, which definitely run in families and require plenty of drug cocktails. Plus, those cases of those diseases and others similar on an exponential rise, whereas our numbers may be increasing... but certainly not on the same scale. I guess there could be a big conspiracy, but I'm inclined to doubt it. I think there would be more profit in curing us than keeping us "diseased".
As a side note, I recently read a paper (I'm in school to get my PhD so I read a lot of research papers not available to people unless you want to pay for them, plus unless you have a background in molecular biology it is almost impossible to read and make any sense of them) where a group of researchers were able to stimulate alpha cells, the "neighbors" of beta cells to change into beta cells. Now this was in mice, was basically one experiment, and it's hard to say if the effect would be lasting or if our immune systems would freak out and kill the new beta cells again like the old ones, but stuff is definitely happening. It takes YEARS to get from an animal model to even trying it in a human model, but people are trying.
i love a good conspiracy, esp when it involoves the government or alien life forms. when it involves both it makes for great comedy.
I think there's plenty of profit in a cure. think about the value of a vaccine that becomes mandatory, it's at least a billion if not multibillion dollar income. yea sure the pump and cgm manufacturers would be mad if you could cure t1, but there are bio companys that are not pump manufacturers, and since big buisness is as cut-throat as ever, why wouldn't a bio company want an income from a new vaccine?
I help make medicine for a living. theraputics (insulin) makes for very good profits, but so does a good vaccine. if company A doens't "want" a cure because they make a fortune on insulin and alcohol swabs, there is company B that would love to make a vaccine for the cash... I just don't think the world of business is so organized that all the companies are working together to do anything (let alone hide stuff from consumers) esp when I see everyday the strategies to literally try to kill eachother. heck, if the vaccine division is a different department within the same company they sometimes try to kill eachother from within!
IMO, the cure is elusive and complicated, just like cancer, HIV, and a gazillion other human issues and that's why there isn't one right now.
also, a lot of research comes from acedemic sources, and are published, which would be close to impossible to control, which is of course, what they want you to believe. ;-)
I believe that there are people out there who are working extremely hard every day to find cures for all diseases, especially diabetes. I refuse to believe that there are doctors, scientists, and researchers who would not allow a cure to be presented just so that insurance companies and other companies can make more money off of people's suffering. This really makes me mad.............................
I think there are people who are honestly trying to find a cure. However, I can see the others side that, yes a ton of companies make a lot of money off of us and will they really want to give that up?
I go back and forth on this one. I think JDRF and Universities are trying. Drug companies and insurance companies do make a lot scratch off of us and our endless stream of more and more supplies. Seems every advancement requires more and more expensive stuff. So obviously they aren't too keen on a "cure".
I have never paid too much attention to cures and stuff because it has never seems to me to be anything on the horizon. I still don't think it is. I suspect that when a "cure" comes, it will be in the form of some kind of vaccine or a way to predict by genes and making some corrections so it doesn't happen. Similar to the polio cure. The people who already had it didn't get fixed, they just prevented any new people from getting it.
But I hope for the best.
Companies constantly adapt to the availability of new vaccines, medications, and treatments - they are introduced all the time. For example, one of my medications was recently substituted for a new generic that was just approved. Surely companies don't want to lose consumers to a generic, but it happens. My point is that it might just be too difficult to keep a cure from coming to the market if it existed. However, that doesn't mean companies are investing in R&D to find a cure. We need organizations like JDRF to push for advancements. Conspiracy theories are fun, but if you do some research you can usually determine their level of validity.
Everyone has good points, and I agree with some of them. I think a cure will come from a company such as JDRF, not the company who sells us our insulin or pump supplies. Yes, a cure will have a price tag, but just like a car, the cure will be paid off over time. The disease itself will always be money in the bank for the company for the remainder of a persons LIFE.
No matter who find a cure, if that happens, I'm sure we can all agree on one thing: We just want the cure! :)
I agree that a cure will most likely come in the form of a vaccine. Maybe those recently diagnosed will be able to have it reversed, but those of us who have had T1 for over 5 years are more likely to be stuck with it forever. A vaccine is better than nothing, although I fear if one is found there will be less focus on improving the lives of those still living with Type 1.
I don't think any companies are currently withholding a cure, but I wouldn't be too surprised at the lengths some corporations will go to in order to make money. In the 1980s when companies were developing drugs to treat HIV/AIDS, there were patents put on these drugs so that no company could reproduce them more cheaply.
The U.S. patents were allowed to be broken in order to provide cheap drugs to foreign countries, at a cost as low as less than $100 a year per person. The only catch was that the U.S. pharmaceuticals would break the patent only on the condition that the low-cost reproductions wouldn't be allowed to be sold in the U.S. The number of people that have suffered as a result of the stipulation is phenomenal, all in the interest of making money off of people who are sick.
While I do think some people and some companies are evil enough to do such a thing not everyone is. With everyone who is working on a cure at least one of them will be a good honest person and come forward with the information if there is one.
How many cures or improvements have already happened but were surpressed due to lack of funding, redirection, etc? Subtle things can change the course of research. How about somebody who gets closed to something, but realizes that to get approval from fda or something would take years, and they move on to something else? Compare the amount of money donated to jdrf versus almost any other donation. We have donations for jdrf that may amount to $20K, but other donations get $200K. These small things kind of hold back progress of a cure. Now, we are having to vote to keep congress interested in support of diabetes research/development. Will it pass? We will see.
How much money was made from the polio vaccine? is the money made by something as basic as the test strip manufacturer not far exceeding the group that put out the polio vacciine? Would the cure fall into the domain of govenment administering? How would that affect money made?
Wow, jackiel, that is pretty intense stuff on Aids/HIV. Here is food for thought. Any drug you buy in England costs the same I think (i.e., something like 5 pounds or something). How is England able to offer that deal? Because our insurance and us pay the full prices. I wonder what would happen to research if we adopted something like England?
David. I would recommend reading The China Study. I've never actually read it but I've heard it has insights on this idea.
[quote user="David Shapiro"]
Wow, jackiel, that is pretty intense stuff on Aids/HIV. Here is food for thought. Any drug you buy in England costs the same I think (i.e., something like 5 pounds or something). How is England able to offer that deal? Because our insurance and us pay the full prices. I wonder what would happen to research if we adopted something like England?
[/quote]The UK sets the price they will pay for a drug. If the drug company doesn't want to sell it for that, they don't have to offer it in England. (This is true across most of the EU as well). So there are products/devices/drugs that are available in the US, that they don't get access to. I believe there are a lot fewer pumps in the UK because of this. How would it be if all those countries that put price controls on it, stopped doing so? Then the costs of the drug would be spreadout to a global market, and the prices for everyone would come down. Drug company 'profits' are what fund their research into new drugs. So if the US starts putting price controls on drugs, then the amount of research being done goes down down down. Unfortunately, profits are also what fund fancy commercials and marketing and R&D usually takes the hit before ad budgets do.
I am not sure a lot of research would happen if these companies did not think they were going to get the bucks for it. If all drugs were a fixed price like they do in the U.K., I would rather work on a pill to lose weight that cost me million to make than an aids cure that cost me 500 million to make. That was my point. The R&D would not take the hit. They just would not do the research and development.
Thanks Audra, I will check out the China Study. For those of you that have not seen the Michael Moore movie, Sicko, check it out. You can take it with a grain of salt of course, but it certainly is provocative and thought provoking.
I don't get why you would EVER believe that. JDRF works toward a cure. They have nothing to do with companies that are selling products to diabetics so why would companies selling products to diabetics have anything to do with JDRF? The companies working to cure our disease and the companies making money off our disease are two very seperate things.