[Dean's World] Dave Price: Mad Scramble For Dichloroacetate Has Begun

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Mad Scramble For Dichloroacetate Has Begun
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1175120737.shtml


   As predicted, cancer patients are [1]trying like hell to get DCA
   before they die.

     PARIS (AFP) - People dying of cancer are turning to the Internet in
     a frantic attempt to buy under-the-counter versions of an untested,
     unlicensed tumour-shrinking chemical, science journals reported
     Wednesday.
     ...
     Doctors are also being urged by patients to request special
     authorisation from national regulatory agencies so that they can
     prescribe the drug.
     "At first, (people enquiring) were quite honest," researcher
     Evangelos Michelakis told the British science weekly. "But now
     we're getting emails from people asking for dosage information for,
     say, a 150-pound (70-kilo) golden retriever."

   This is the problem with an industry in which people lives are at
   stake but the gatekeepers are not only heavily cartelized but
   insulated from cost decisions: nothing gets done cheaply or quickly.

     Because DCA has been around for years, its structure cannot be
     patented and pharmaceutical companies are not interested in
     developing the drug.

   You don't say.

     Michelakis is raising money with the hope of starting his own
     small-scale clinical trial "within the next few months," Nature
     said.

   Months? Before it even begins? That's insane. A reasonably system
   would allow people who are dying anyway to try the drug immediately,
   and someone could record the results afterward.

References

   1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070328/hl_afp/healthpharmainternet_070328183225