Waldo Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 A lot of people pay in to cancer research charities, which is great. However, I feel there is one legitimate concern... When a cure is found; will there be some large pharmaceutical corporation, that will somehow end up owning the cure, and selling it; so that it's only accessible to the wealthy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 There won't be "a cure" because cancer is not "a thing". Cancer describes many diseases whereby the cause is a problem with the replication of the bodies own cells. Big Pharma will undoubtedly own many different drugs, effective against many different cancers, and they will make what money they can for the 10 or 15 years they have to monetize the drugs. After which they will be manufactured by other companies and the price will tumble. The NHS of course ensures that treatment is available to all if the treatement is cost effective. There are very few drugs in the UK that are only available to the rich (there are a few that NICE says are cost ineffective and so cannot be prescribed by the NHS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 You assume that some company is going to discover a magic cure-all that will completely destroy every type of cancer known to man. This is very unlikely. Whats more likely is each type of cancer will have a specific drug, or combination of drugs thats works effectively on it. For example there already is a vaccine which is highly effective against HPV which is a cause of cervical cancer in women. Obviously that same treatment that is so effective against cervical cancer would do sod all against lung cancer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little malc Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 the big problem with any new cure is that the cash strapped NHS will probably be unable to afford it. As to the original question, I have long thought that cancer research provides a huge number of jobs and finding a cure will put many on the dole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Cid Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Who does the charity money go to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Some good news on skin cancer at least. Lots of cancers are treatable, lots and lots of cancers never require treatment and go unnoticed during a lifetime. Other, more problematic cancers need further research, and it's not just drugs that come out at the other end, but preventative benefits too, and they're always free. It's preposterous that serious cancer research organisations should have to beg for money, but there you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinfoilhat Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Some good news on skin cancer at least. Lots of cancers are treatable, lots and lots of cancers never require treatment and go unnoticed during a lifetime. Other, more problematic cancers need further research, and it's not just drugs that come out at the other end, but preventative benefits too, and they're always free. It's preposterous that serious cancer research organisations should have to beg for money, but there you go. Cancer research gets way more than research for other diseases. But they are making progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 Who does the charity money go to? Along with research alot of it go's on the patients, most charities run a number of hospices for patients and various patient and family support initiatives. I'm sure if you spent some time on charity websites you could dig up information on their spending and budgets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackK0 Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I was going to ask a question on here similar to this, which was why do the drugs cost so much money I heard on the news tonight a new drug for cancer could cost near 100 thousand pounds for a single person. How can it cost that much what makes it that much? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margarita Ma Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I was going to ask a question on here similar to this, which was why do the drugs cost so much money I heard on the news tonight a new drug for cancer could cost near 100 thousand pounds for a single person. How can it cost that much what makes it that much? Years of research need to be paid for lots of companies research medicines and sponsor PHD students doing the research, pay for work done in universities etc. Charities also do the same as well as supporting hospitals ansd hoispices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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