OK, here’s the thing. We now know how to cure incipient and at least suspend and perhaps cure long-standing Type I diabetes (see last three entries and blogroll). This isn’t a supposition, it has already been shown to be effective, in a drug already approved for human use, so extensive R&D isn’t necessary. The manufacturers of biosynthetic human insulin net billions each year (Lilly’s total sales for last year were over twenty billion dollars.
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-29-2009/0004962536&EDATE=
Note that although they reported an actual quarterly (not yearly) loss, its first in history, that was due to their multibillion dollar purchase of another company, Imclone)
so clearly these guys are in no rush to release a product that would remove their diabetic dependents from their customer base, one of its biggest components. In response to requests for the restoration of animal insulins, the FDA has repeatedly stated that they have no power to compel a company to produce any drug, and they will (unless the Obama administration is successful in their reform efforts, and I wish them luck), undoubtedly make the same assertion regarding the manufacture of a Type I cure.
However, there may be another way to achieve this. Most people are unaware that the pharmaceutical companies have been profiting from taxpayer funded research since the passage of the Bayh-Dole bill, in 1982, which permitted drug companies to use research from state-sponsored educational institutions, to develop and patent new products, then sell those same products back to the public at ridiculously high prices (AZT, for example).
http://www.populist.com/00.13.golden.fleece.html
The team that discovered the mechanism of curing Type I diabetes with (at first) a TK inhibitor, were all employed by the University of California at San Francisco, which is a taxpayer supported institution. Despite the fact we paid for the research, as described in the above link, they will give or sell it to a drug company, who will retain but ( I believe) NOT USE the right to manufacture their drug that would cure diabetes. Because of their ownership, and drug patents, that is the right to a competition-free license to manufacture the drug and sell it at whatever price they choose, for a period which has grown longer and longer since the 80s, they will be able to block any other source of production of such a cure.
If the new administration is serious about reforming the FDA (and I strongly support their proposal to separate the food from the drug inspection system), then they could start by encouraging the repeal of Bayh-Dole, quickly if possible, before this drug is developed and patented, (I know this is a tall order), and the administration itself, through the NIH, for example, sponsor the development of a cure for Type I. Even without overturning B-D, a ‘Manhattan-Project’ style approach could be employed to quickly produce a cure, if it’s done before a drug company secures rights to the eventual product. Again, the research has already been done, it’s safe for humans AND WE PAID FOR IT. There’s no need to wait. Write the White House (Sunday: just did so) and tell them you want Bayh-Dole repealed and a cure for Type I diabetes made available CHEAPLY to the public. Write The Juvenile Foundation for Diabetes and tell them the same thing. The esteemed Mary Tyler Moore appears on TV as their spokesperson, asking us to help develop a cure, well, Mary, we have one. Help us persuade someone to make it!
President Obama please step up!
Thank you.
Once again, comments are eagerly invited.
For background on Bayh-Dole and other techniques used by Big Pharma to overcharge the people who can least afford it, please read this article by Marcia Angell, published in 2004:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17244
