The net is abuzz this week with news about an un-patented drug called “DCA” (dichloroacetic acid or dichloroacetate). It has been used until now for treatment of rare metabolic disorders involving malfunctioning mitochondria. Recent animal tests with human cancers have shown that DCA reactivates cancer’s deactivated mitochondria, causing cancer cells to have a more normal lifespan compared to the tissues they sprang from. It turns out the mitochondria play a critical role in determining how long a particular cell lives, and cancer cells shut their mitochondria off as they become starved for resources due to their enormous growth.
There’s only one problem with DCA: it’s in the public domain. That means no large pharmaceutical companies are going to be funding human research and FDA approval of the drug. Now, I’m a big fan of open source in software. Could open-source medicine be the next big trend? Let’s find out… donation instructions are listed in the article.
Can You Hear The Tightening Sphincters?
Can you imagine the collective heart attack of the drug/academic research industry if some unpatentable drug cures cancer? All the money invested into finding a cure for cancer just worthless now with no hope for a return on that investment?
If GW and Congress don’t take a slice of that $2.9 trillion budget they’re throwing around and fund this, then they should all be shot. A potential cure for cancer or an unwinnable war in Iraq: which one is more important to you right now? I’d pay $5/gallon for gas to know when I get cancer it’ll be treatable.
Bill Gates and Bono need to get on this. Where are all our high-publicity philanthropists?
Pardon my French, but my dad died of cancer, so this news is [expletive deleted] awesome! (if not 3 years too late)
My $.02 (and probably getting ahead of myself) Weed
Appropriate use of a curse..
Undoubtedly, someone will take offense to the F**k here.. but, like the use of the word at the end of NIN’s “Something I can Never Have”, I rule it be allowed to stand, as an appropriate and justifiably needed extra oomph.
Well said. Lets hope it turns out to be true. I’ve seen too many patients and family members and now friends go at the hands of this disease
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I Don’t See A Problem
Matt,
1. Nonprofit sector in the U.S. is huge. We have more money funneled through more foundations focusing on public health than ever before and, I believe, more than any other country.
2. Shakespeare’s writing is in the public domain but those publishing houses still circulate old editions and even put out new editions. Without devoting time to a long-winded explanation of my position, you don’t need formula control to earn a market return.