
In 2007 Canadian researchers of the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, reported they had found a cure for cancer. Evangelos Michelakis and his colleagues discovered that dichloroacetate (DCA), a common and basic drug already used to treat metabolic disorders, could be employed also for inhibiting the growth of tumors and for killing most types of cancer cells in humans.
Over the years the news of this discovery, after arousing initial interest and curiosity, has been ignored until the recent appearance of a post blog on the Web stating, “Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice,” which drew attention and spread the news again. This post underlines the fact that major pharmaceutical companies have intentionally ignored the discovery for business reasons.
DCA is a safe and nontoxic drug, it leads cancer cells into self-destruction and consequent death thanks to the activation of apoptosis process by mitochondria, without effecting normal tissues, as it happens instead with patent anti-tumoral drugs produced until now which are focused on glycolysis method.
The reason why pharmaceutical companies are not interested in this “alternative” drug is only business. In fact DCA has no patent, so it can be employed widely and for a cost that is ridiculously low compared to other drugs produced by major drug companies.
“Big Pharma has no interest whatsoever in investing [in DCA research] because there will be no profit,” said Michelakis to Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.
Diseases are sources of profit for pharmaceutical companies, which work like any other company, following the logic of business. The sale of drugs that cause many side effects brings the greatest profit. Cancer drugs are the ones which cause the highest number of side effects. Therefore they represent a huge business for drug companies, triggering a mechanism that could be also defined criminal, made by conflicts of interests, cynicism, cruelty and lies.
New generations of alternative methods would largely reduce the profit, for this reason companies don’t invest in research like the DCA one. “If DCA proves to be effective, then it will be a ridiculously cheap drug,” Michelakis said, highlighting the scarce possibilities to make profit on a drug like that.
“Without the promise of a reasonable profit, there is very little incentive for any company to develop new drugs,” explained Omudhome Ogbru, a pharmacologist R&D director at The Medicines Company in New Jersey.
The magazine Forbes classified pharmaceutical industry as the most lucrative of the world at the same level of oil industry. At so high of a business level it is not surprising that the conflicts of interests regulate choices in regards to health and ethics.
Various investigations and revelations have brought to light all the negative sides of the pharmaceutical sector. These include causation of new diseases to sell drugs, spread of epidemics in order to produce and distribute vaccines, reports on false research or falsification of data, censorship on inconvenient facts, and corruption and bribes to politicians, doctors and officials at international level.
This is all an interlacing of relations and a power game of enormous range where human life is worthless and only the money counts. Treat is better than cure for the “world’s health masters”.
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