? What do you think......... | Arthritis Information

 

What do you think the chances are that a drug company (or companies) would suddenly discover a cure for RA and other arthritis conditions if the company were given a 99 year patent? Of course, there would need to be legislation enacted by our government that would ensure a constant price for the drug or drugs.  Even then the drug company would be rolling in $$$$$$'s.  So what do you think?

Have been reading the posts but not answering them because I really don't have anything to add.  Have noticed a few posts which are shall we say, "quite lively?"  By contrast there are posts providing really good info.  * Gentle Hugs * It's just reached 60 degrees here so I'll be outside for the remainder of the day. 
I think that sort of financial incentive might be needed.  There would be a problem if all companies suddenly switched from working on treatments to working on cures, and it would be take no hostages.  And there may be several ways to go about a "cure."  You don't want to disincentivize treating people for whom any cure would come too late.  It's a very delicate situation.

KatieG2008-05-14 11:37:39hi watchingwolf..  this is tricky stuff as you say , it all revolves around
cash. no disease no cash..  i once read a cure for cancers had been discoverd
but the goverments do not want it realeased due to disease keeping the
population down.. i allso read that there is a race on inthe medical  world
to break down the dna strands in the body. when these can be decipherd.
all autoimmune disease and the ageing process can be halted..

Boney

There's a lot of stumbling blocks for pharmaceutical companies beyond the monetary ones. However, the problem for finding a cure still rests with medically unknown processes. I do think that someone is more likely to stumble upon a prevention, cure, or effective way to stop the disease progression rather than to uncover the cause.

They still are a long way off from safely curing cancer in many respects and enormous amounts of money get thrown at that. There are whole medical businesses that would shut down or need to scale down if someone found a cure for cancer or arthritis.  the key to a cure will come from the academic research being done not the commercial research.    The academic researchers do the baseline research that leads to more information.  The building blocks to ALL of the biologic medicines were found in an academic setting.  And despite what some will say these researchers are looking for the cause and ultimate cure. 
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