Zinger of the day

[libertango]

"Why spend research dollars on a drug to treat a cancer that affects less than 1% of the population when you can spend it on erectile dysfunction, which impacts the entire GOP?"

From this thread on health care, at Kevin Drum's blog.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Well, research on a cancer that affects less than 1% of the population could be covered under the Orphan Drugs Act, which was designed to promote research into this very type of disease. I read an article in Scientific American a couple years ago (or maybe Science News) that said drug companies were finding the Orphan Drugs Act very profitable, because they could repurpose the drug when it'd been fully tested and all that.

The real question is, why spend research dollars on a vaccine when making the disease a condition is so profitable (AIDS)? And particularly, why spend research dollars on diseases that kill people in poor countries, when you can spend it on making affluent countries better? (ED meds and antidepressants).

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

I work at a biotech company that built their company and reputation on orphan drugs. They've now been around over 25 years and are very profitable. Orphan drug research can work and be profitable to companies and patients. Companies look at what we've done to figure out how we've been successful in making money for drugs that treat a patient group where the disease may only occur in 5,000 people worldwide. But nobody wants to hear that there are companies out there working on rare diseases.

I'm not saying that big pharma isn't evil. They can be as evidenced by the Vioxx lawsuits, strategies used to extend patent life, etc. So nobody jump on me saying I'm defending big pharma. I'm not. I'm just pointing out another side to the issue.

And then there's the issue that companies have to work with the insurers and that also affects drug prices, it's not the drug company entirely controlling the prices of the drugs. Insurers are also part of the problem.

Anyway, the quote _is_ funny.......