We’re talking about glioblastoma here, there’s not much “continous” treatment to be had and temozolomide’s and bevacizumab’s patents have run out (edit: also bevacizumab doesn’t prolong overall survival at all and temozolomide is ineffective in MGMT-positive patients, i.e. about half).
That said, I’m not sure why the other commenter is so dismissive of your idea. There’s plenty of drugs that have been kept in the cupboard (e.g. desloratadine) or not seeking approval for certain illnesses so a “new”, more expensive drug could be sold (e.g. no rituximab trials for multiple sclerosis so Roche could sell Ocrelizumab, no Bevacizumab trials for macular degeneration so they could sell Ranibizumab) – and certainly many more that we never heard about.
That’s just not true, and it’s been shown over and over again.
The prognosis for a disease treatment that’s regular enough to be more profitable than a cure over time, but doesn’t cure the underlying disease (or send it into remission), is typically measured in months. For glioblastoma in particular, that average is 12-18 months.
You’re not talking about bilking people out of treatment for decades, you’re talking about getting maybe a year. Even the most misanthropic pharmaceutical executive (and let’s be honest, they all are) would look at that calculation and say “nah, if we can cure it, we can charge way more and people will pay it. People will pay just about anything for a cure.”
This is why cancer remission rates have gone up by 30% or more in the past fifty years. It’s just way more lucrative to cure a disease than to try to keep people alive, but not cured. That tightrope is just too thin for them to walk reliably and make any profit.
Because they hate money
Because continuous treatment is much more profitable than a cure.
We’re talking about glioblastoma here, there’s not much “continous” treatment to be had and temozolomide’s and bevacizumab’s patents have run out (edit: also bevacizumab doesn’t prolong overall survival at all and temozolomide is ineffective in MGMT-positive patients, i.e. about half).
That said, I’m not sure why the other commenter is so dismissive of your idea. There’s plenty of drugs that have been kept in the cupboard (e.g. desloratadine) or not seeking approval for certain illnesses so a “new”, more expensive drug could be sold (e.g. no rituximab trials for multiple sclerosis so Roche could sell Ocrelizumab, no Bevacizumab trials for macular degeneration so they could sell Ranibizumab) – and certainly many more that we never heard about.
That’s just not true, and it’s been shown over and over again.
The prognosis for a disease treatment that’s regular enough to be more profitable than a cure over time, but doesn’t cure the underlying disease (or send it into remission), is typically measured in months. For glioblastoma in particular, that average is 12-18 months.
You’re not talking about bilking people out of treatment for decades, you’re talking about getting maybe a year. Even the most misanthropic pharmaceutical executive (and let’s be honest, they all are) would look at that calculation and say “nah, if we can cure it, we can charge way more and people will pay it. People will pay just about anything for a cure.”
This is why cancer remission rates have gone up by 30% or more in the past fifty years. It’s just way more lucrative to cure a disease than to try to keep people alive, but not cured. That tightrope is just too thin for them to walk reliably and make any profit.
This is a huge assumption. If this actually cures glioblastoma they could charge whatever they wanted
And their stock price would skyrocket. It would make a lot of very rich people much richer, which they’re generally in favor of.
Cancer is infecting people all the time. Curing every person right now would not stop it from reappearing.
A cure would be like an infinite money glitch.
And it’s also fun to add side effects. Oh! Let’s do diarrhea and uncontrollable flatulence on this one!
Let’s see… I have diarrhea and I fart a lot or I die in agony of cancer.
Yep, definitely going to pick the cancer. For sure.
Maybe if you’re shit at marketing.
Meanwhile I can already see the advert writers salivating at getting to walk past the regulators and openly advertise “we cured cancer!”