Capitalism or not the claim would be true, chronic diseases are defined by their lack of effective cure.
Completely true. But there would be fewer of them.
It’s crazy that when my research team comes up with a therapeutic target we believe might lead to curing a disease, we get crickets from drug companies. But when we present therapeutic targets for long term treatment, we get lots of interest.
Could that be (at least partially) explained by those companies looking at a long-term treatment as the more realistic goal after being burned by proposed cures in the past? Lots of quacks out there offer a quick cure, not as many say up front that their product will need a prolonged period of use. Not saying you and yours fit that label but their bullshit tips the signal-to-noise ratio in an unfavorable direction for both relief-seekers and providers.
I don’t know your field, team’s reputation or the companies you’ve been in contact with though so of course it could be the simple greed motivation too.
That’s the lenient interpretation I’d hope.
But we’re not an alternative medicine group or anything. If you look into their shareholder meetings the public info seems to be that they judge whether investments are worth it by potential return on investment, and well a lifelong treatment is always going to be more profitable for them than a cure.
Or, chronic diseases which have been effectively cured aren’t considered chronic diseases anymore?
Stop with your logic on the Internet!
And yes, the vast majority of the apparatus that is capitalism is evil, before anyone wants to think I’m simping for it.
Hell, most chronic disease cures are done by the evil and completely untrustworthy propaganda machine that is the government.
Yeah, we’ve cured a ton of previously chronic diseases. I don’t know what planet these people live on. We’ve even effectively cured certain cancers in our lifetimes, and more will come. It’s also just much harder to cure something than treat something.
I’m really struggling to think of any, most coming to mind are bacterial or viral, though I’m certain there are thousands of chronic human pathologies we’ve cured, some we probably don’t even remember curing because the terminology is so outdated (though sadly dropsy is still a thing, and frustratingly consumption isn’t eradicated yet …but it could be!)
Can you give me a starting point if you’ve got one on your tongue? I’d like to journey down the Wikipedia rabbit hole tonight!
hidradenitis suppurativa
edit: i read wrong, that’s uncured, i could imagine that along with what you mentioned, a lot are likely nutrition-based, treatments have gotten better for a lot of things, outlooks and lifespans for certain genetic conditions, but off the top of my head i can’t think of anything that has a “cure” that’s not viral or environmental
Myopia (shortsightedness) is a fairly big one.
The cure’s been so ingrained that the anti-medicine/eugenics people don’t think about their own glasses when posting.
You can just go get your eyes tested, some glasses fitted, and you’re done. Repeat if it gets worse.
If you want something more permanent, you can get someone to slice open your eye, blast it a bit with a laser, and in theory, you would be completely cured, as if you never needed glasses.
You get what you pay for, in a sense. How would the public respond to a one-time cure being sold for more than the total lifetime cost of treatment? Not well, but the thing is that responding like that is effectively expressing a preference for the lifelong treatment.
It’s not an imaginary scenario. For example, look at Sovaldi, the $84,000 hepatitis C cure. That’s less than the total cost of long-term treatment but it didn’t exactly make Gilead popular.
But does it ACTUALLY cost that much or do they charge that much because they can, like insulin?
the other big thing is that for most with chronic illnesses, the public isn’t looking, nor do they care, if i had the money, i would try anything, but i hardly leave my house and i can’t afford to work, so i’ll take whatever my insurance covers even if that ininofitself decreases my lifespan and causes me pain, hey actually, you just reminded me of a cure that “the public” doesn’t talk much about, when will euthanasia be legal? oh but that also is an abrupt end to a condition that could still be squeezed for profit, do you know your audience?
when will euthanasia be legal?
It may not be legal, but when self-administered it’s not like you can be punished for it.
bold of you to assume that i have the means to self-administer, if one doesn’t have the means are they just not worthy of peace? or do they have to risk someone going to jail for murder for assisting?
Would that be called profitalism?
There is a film from 1995 which is literally about companies trying to prevent a cure from getting out since it would interfere with their ongoing treatments.
Tap for spoiler (the name of the film)
The film was Johnny Mnemonic .