Do you think a cure for aids/cancer has been found?

[SirPiken]

Where in the world are you gathering those numbers? There's no citation of context for me to work from.

The #1 pharmaceutical company in the world, Pfizer, made ~$68 billion in revenues last year. $10 billion of that was profit. Even if 5% of that revenue was from HIV medications, that's still only $3.4 billion, of which maybe a half billion would be profit.

Now imagine one of their competitors comes out with a cure and patents it. Now suddenly they don't get any of that $3.4 billion/year, nor do they get to sell the cure. Money down the drain.

Either way, if their patients live longer, that's years more of being able to sell them the other drugs that make up 95% of their revenues.

But if I look at things like actual facts I can't wear this cool tinfoil hat anymore.

[Reeve]

OK, I found revenue numbers for the top 10 Merck and Pfizer drugs. No HIV medication even hits the top 10, and the lowest on the list is $277 million. So the MOST HIV medications make for pharmaceutical companies is $269.9 million/year, and probably a lot less.

Merck's top cancer drug was worth $292 million, Pfizer's was $293 million. Pfizer's highest seller was Lipitor, at more than $3 billion. Now imagine if all those people with cancer or HIV lived longer and used more Lipitor.

http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?n=599&a=2778

[Spectral]

I've never seen anyone that has even the dimmest grasp of the research world suggest this sort of shit. That should be a sign for people that entertain it.

[Mercadi]

For certain kinds. There are hundreds of types of cancer, you know.

[Kasierith]

I don't see how the financial gains would come from wiping out Cancer or Aids. As such I don't see how anybody who has discovered it would ever make it to the light of day. The treatment of Cancer and Aids is a gold mine and will most likely see huge bounds as time goes on. The most I think you will ever see is effective treatment. I'm pessimistic though by nature.

You cannot wipe out cancer; it is a normal biological process that, unlike AIDS, can never be fully eradicated. You develop cancerous cells hundreds of times a day; the problem is when the body can't wipe them out. As for the cure, the pharmaceutical business is absolutely not a monopoly. You have dozens if not more companies and universities invested in drug development. Any one of them discovering a way to all out eradicate cancer would be the first to truly dominate the entire market and draw in not only vast and continuous revenue, but international recognition and prestige and likely billions in grants to work on other projects.

---------- Post added 2013-05-08 at 10:42 PM ----------

I've never seen anyone that has even the dimmest grasp of the research world suggest this sort of shit. That should be a sign for people that entertain it.

Well, in all fairness the greater part of the general populace doesn't even understand what cancer is.

[Spectral]

Well, in all fairness the greater part of the general populace doesn't even understand what cancer is.

That's why I encourage them to actually listent to scientists instead of concocting or listening to kooky conspiracies. If someone told me there was a secret material that could build buildings stronger and cheaper, my inclination would be to ask a materials scientist, not say "awesome!". I don't know shit about chemistry and materials engineering and such, so I trust the people that do. I'd like everyone to do the same with biological treatments.

[Reeve]

That's why I encourage them to actually listent to scientists instead of concocting or listening to kooky conspiracies. If someone told me there was a secret material that could build buildings stronger and cheaper, my inclination would be to ask a materials scientist, not say "awesome!". I don't know shit about chemistry and materials engineering and such, so I trust the people that do. I'd like everyone to do the same with biological treatments.

They won't sell the secret material though, because then the buildings will last forever and they won't get to build new ones!

[Lenonis]

People who have no clue how the pharmaceutical industry works really shouldn't be commenting on threads like these because it ends up looking mindbogglingly stupid to those that do.

If a company found the cure for any of those things they would patent it, sell the crap out of it, bundle it with all sorts of other products of theirs, make a huge profit, gain tons of market share, and laugh all the way to the bank.

What they wouldn't do it hide it away from the rest of the world.

Plus, do you really think not a single person would speak up? It isn't like a single person in some cave works on these things. There are teams of dozens if not hundreds of people who would know about it at any given time.

[Crazyraver]

actually cheech is the latest person to be fully cured of cancer

there are many people being cured on the plant of renown page on facebook

its a matter of diet and cannabis

there are over 10 people totally cured on that page alone

[Elegiac]

actually cheech is the latest person to be fully cured of cancer

there are many people being cured on the plant of renown page on facebook

its a matter of diet and cannabis

there are over 10 people totally cured on that page alone

Ten people is not statistically significant, nor is the data structured anywhere remotely resembling scientifically.

[Lenonis]

actually cheech is the latest person to be fully cured of cancer

there are many people being cured on the plant of renown page on facebook

its a matter of diet and cannabis

there are over 10 people totally cured on that page alone

Are.....are...you really putting forward a facebook page as proof?

[Crazyraver]

CBD regulates the chemicals that trigger cells to eat dead cells thus curing cancer

its a well known fact if you know your stuff

[Novx]

I don't want to contradict myself judging by my past threads about conspiracy theories but, lets say Obama , or Biden got infected with aids or developed cancer do you think they have some kind or secret cure they don't tell anyone about? Just curious

It is a well known fact that Obama and Biden have been in bed with the Illuminati and are mass producing the cure for aids and cancer just in case they get it. They were going to give it to the public for free, but Dick Cheney found a way to keep them quiet.

No, they don't have the cure for cancer, do you realize how much money the person who found the cure would make if they started selling that? Why would they keep it a secret.


@CrazyRaver: I really hope you aren't serious -_-

[Crazyraver]

just google CBD oil cure cancer

there are lots of studies on it atm

[Arcilux]

That's a Fictitious World you have there.

a. Take AIDs:



Any cure would have to represent more financial wealth then proposed treatment over the given time frame otherwise no company would do it unless their heart suddenly grew 3 times too big. Imagine that financial meeting. We will make 37 million the next 30 years+ treating AIDs, or we release this cure, make 14 million the next 5 years each and then find something else to sell since AIDs will be gone.

b. Negligible effect versus the treatment of AIDs or Cancer. They have no shortage of customers for drugs. There is always someone willing to buy something to cure something.

I highly doubt unless we get a pharma company run by Anduin we are going to see a cure to Cancer or AIDs.


One thing I'll add though is "cure" is usually meant as I will never get it ever again. If you mean "cure" as in I have it, I can take this antibiotic and get rid of it then we might see that as a treatment. Vaccine though is never going to happen as long as we have money.

But diseases seldom go extinct. It's happened to what, four diseases in the history of modern medicine? Just because a cure exists doesn't mean the disease will vanish. The first company to come up with and release a cure will immediately steal profits from the other companies that make the current treatments (chemo mixtures, etc.) Holding onto a cure is a risky gamble, if you make the current treatments as well then another company releasing the cure will take your current profits. If you don't make the current treatments, then you are giving up a profit gold mine by not releasing the cure.

Plus, there is the stock price to consider. Just the PR from a cancer cure will result in billions of dollars flowing into any publicly traded company.

Conversely, if they had a cure and hid it, one person leaking that info to the press and the company is dead in the water. We have so many whistle blowers nothing that big can be kept out of the media forever.

In short:

Have a cure and release it:

Huge PR boost
Huge stock boost
Huge potential for profits in a competitor-less field.

Have a cure and hide it:

Potential profit from existing treatments (of which you are competing against dozens of other pharm companies)
Risk of those profits disappearing if another company releases a cure
Bad PR that will kill your company if you are discovered
Potential for being held legally responsible for all cancer/aids deaths since you created the cure (a bit of a stretch, but if people sue over coffee being hot you can damn well bet they will sue if you purposefully withheld a treatment that could save a life)

So basically, no real reason not to release the cure if one existed. Too much risk

[Unalorian]

I don't see how the financial gains would come from wiping out Cancer or Aids. As such I don't see how anybody who has discovered it would ever make it to the light of day.

Too bad for your logic that a fair number (if not most) of research regarding Cancer and Aids are performed by public/governmental institutions, not private corporations.

[Deleted]

Aids is the side effect from HIV. Aids is what happens when your immune system is destroyed by HIV.
Finding a cure would mean finding a way to rebuild your immune system.

Cancer is when your cells mutate and begin acting in way they were not meant to.
You cannot simply find a cure for such an effect. Simply due to the fact that we have millions and millions of cells. furthermore not all cells are equal nor are all mutations equal.

Sorry to say this but there is no pill, that can work and fix every single type of cell.

there is no ''reset to fabric settings'' button.

Also even if a cure for cancer was found, it would only be for a specific mutation.
Then there is the discussion about mutations and natural selection.

[Crazyraver]

im amazed at how deluded most people are over what the government controls you with

[Calzaeth]

"Cancer" is a very broad description of a large number of conditions.

It's not the AIDS that kills you, it's that you have no working immune system.

Yeah, I came in to this thread with these exact two points in mind. Cancer isn't a single thing, and the dangerous part of AIDS is that a regular cold can take you out due to no immune system.

However, there has been some amazing progress in the treatment and research of autoimmune diseases the last decade, so I genuinely believe we'll cure AIDS (and MS, Crohn's etc.) in the foreseeable future. But I don't believe that there is already a cure that is being kept secret for whatever lackwit reason.

[jazen]

Large pharmaceutical companies have little interest in 'curing' cancer or aids.....the money is in treatment, not curing.