Say Anything Blog

The tortuous and expensive labyrinth that has to be negotiated to get FDA spproval raises the initial cost of any new drug to nosebleed levels.  Let’s clear away the regulations that strangle innovation, inform people of the risks involved, and let them vote with their dollars.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

I agree with Robert.  The problem here isn’t capitalism, as is insinuated by Mike, but rather government interference that is stifling innovation.

Even if DCA can’t be patented there is still profit to be made from it’s production and sale if it can indeed be used to combat cancer.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Even if DCA can’t be patented there is still profit to be made from it’s production and sale if it can indeed be used to combat cancer.

Absolutely.  The problem here is the artificially high cost of entry into the market, which discriminates against inexpensive drugs; the definition of “free market” refers to freedom of entry and exit, and the govt regulations in the drug industry prevent it from being a free market, and turn it into a “rigged market”.  Only drugs that might turn a very high profit get introduced into the system, to the detriment of us all.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

You say people have consumed DCA for years. Why not produce a candy bar with DCA in it? A healthfood snack? Condiments or spices with DCA in them? As long as you make no claim of medicinal properties there is no problem. If it also cures cancer, well, that is just a side effect of the crunchy,spicy goodness.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

And which reduces tumors? The D or the C? A, standing for Acetate, is listed as a carcinogen, so I doubt it is the star pupil.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

Two: When you put salt on something, which part enhances the flavor?  Is it the sodium, a corrosive metal, or the chlorine, an equally corrosive gas?  Sometimes, chemical compounds are more than the sum of their parts.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

2Hotel9, acetate itself cannot be described as a carcinogen, since it’s only a free ion.  Coupled with other free ions of the opposite polarity, and you get a salt that can be either helpful or harmful.  However, acetate (much like cyanate, believe it or not) cannot exist as itself and thus cannot harm by itself.

Also, for what it’s worth, oncologists routinely prescribe medicines outside their ordinary use.  My mom has had the misfortune of learning this, and is thankfully doing very well--in part due to the “misapplication” of certain drugs, believe it or not.

Sorry, I was thinking acetone. I thought about it on the way to a job. You could still make the candy bars, they just wouldn’t clean ink orpaint off things as well.

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

I think this still has to do with capitalism. Drug companies, while striving to make life and health better for us all, also are in it to make money.

We have seen multiple problems with medicaitons in the last few years. If anything we need a more scrutinous approval process - perhaps less bureaucratic and costly, and more concenred with the science.

One would think, though, that some company or another would step up and incur the slight cost of approval (relative to the huge profits these guys make and spend on their ad campaigns and lobbying (in addition to R&D)) - I am confident they could recoup it via a nice ad campaign that says, “hey, look. we’re really in it for you and yours.”

In addition, I’m sure there are plenty of cancer research charities around with the capital to put something like this through the approval process.

I think this still has to do with capitalism. Drug companies, while striving to make life and health better for us all, also are in it to make money.

Thanks for summing up the main reason why Marxism just doesn’t work: Making money is the solution, not the problem.  You look upon profit as adding cost, whereas in actual fact, it cuts costs to the minimum necessary.  This is why socialistic programs always result in higher costs and short supplies.  The efficiency necessary to make a profit lowers the cost to the consumer, enabling them to buy more, which is the goal of every business: to sell lots of product.  Unfortunately for your ideology, the present system adds so much to the initial cost, the “startup” cost, that it filters out all the less profitable drugs from the market.  The cure for the ills of socialism is not more socialism.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

Note:
I said nothing negative about capiltalism. Merely that I feel it is related to this particular cure’s inavailability. I said nothing about socialism or marxism. I also offered more thoughts on the subject.
R108:
You evidence your one-track paranoid mindset above. Feel free to respond to my posts and not the ones you imagine me as posting.
Also:

You look upon profit as adding cost, whereas in actual fact, it cuts costs to the minimum necessary.

Are you putting words in my mouth or what? How do you know I look at things in that manner. I happen to think of profit as adding cost and reducing cost; depending on the situation. Those generalizations are great for your whole BS feelgood ideology, but unfortunately reality is varied.

Actually, I’m going to (courtesy of the Mises Institute) go one step past Robert108; the problem with socialism is its inherent striving to eliminate prices.  Without a price as a reference for the implications of a decision, people will be unable to make good decisions.

Steak or bread?  Heart surgery or a walk in the park?  The decision is random and arbitrary without an understanding of prices inherent in sound, non-socialistic economics.

Robert Perry
Que? Are you saying that prescription drugs are expensive to encourage us to go for a walk in the park?

I happen to think of profit as adding cost and reducing cost; depending on the situation.

You’re just plain wrong here.  You may think of it that way, but you are not in touch with reality on the matter.  This statement by you illustrates that I was replying properly, and that your attempt to deny it is laughable.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

There are loads of counterfactuals to your broad asserion. I have beeter things to do with my time right now though, that involve me making a profit. Maybe next time.

Robert: To sharpen up your point a little, socialists actually use price as a social engineering tool, instead of the resultant of the relationship between supply and demand.  The reason for this is that they really don’t recognize demand as the prime mover in society, since that would cut into their authoritarian need to control the citizens.  Instead, they set prices at some artificially low level, for things they regard as necessary, and artificially high for things they want to inhibit or prohibit.  We have a great example of this in our country in the form of “public utilities”, which are kept at an artificially low price, so that supply is generally a problem.  The CA “energy crisis” of a few years ago was caused by the practice.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

Sparkie, what I’m getting at is more basic; without prices, economic decisions become arbitrary and nonsensical.  (it took me a few minutes to catch on to this one....ponder it a minute)

And R*108 is correct; the economic boards of the Soviet Union even created price schedules to help make decisions, based on prices observed in the “evil capitalist USA.” When socialism is incomplete, they also “tweak” existing prices to make one good seem more advantageous than other.

In other words, socialism depends on a systematic deception about the real costs of goods and services.  That ain’t good when you need to get something, to put it mildly.

...the problem with socialism is its inherent striving to eliminate prices.  Without a price as a reference for the implications of a decision, people will be unable to make good decisions.

Robert Perry,

A very astute point!  Few people (and fewer liberals) understand that the function of a market is to provide a forum for the exchange of information as well as goods, and that all those dollar signs are really just a convenient transactional shorthand.  Any artificial disruption in pricing adversely effects the quality of the information and the rationality of the decisions based on that information.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

The CA “energy crisis” of a few years ago was caused by the practice.

Among other things. In fact, it has been documented that Enron was intentionally shutting down plants at certain times in addition to penning contracts to send more energy over certain lines than the lines were able to carry.

The blackout in NYC a few years back was also directly related to the privatizing of the grid in New York and Niagra Mowhawk’s cutting of 23 million dollars in line maintenance in one year. Their rationalization is that the plants are privatized, but the grids and lines are of dubious ownership. They pocket the 23 million, a tradgedy happens, and the fed replaces the 23 million as an emergency fund. I think more than a few of you should have problems with such practices. They are directly stealing our money.

I think I may have also just hit on a couple of those counterfactuals I was referring to above.

Sparkie, Enron wouldn’t have been able to do that had he state not forced its utilities to sell their generating capacity, or had the state allowed utilities to make long term contracts for power.  ‘twas a problem with regulation, not markets.  (yes, this is what “deregulation” actually did in California)

And the NYC blackout?  Wasn’t that caused by a tree downing in Ohio?  Little flaw in your reasoning there, sir.

And Bat One--thanks, and credit belongs not to me, but to Ludwig von Mises, I believe.

Sparkie: The real problem with Enron was that it was trading in a commodity that had no free market price.  Energy prices are manipulated by govt, and have always been so.  The NYC blackout problem, even if it was as you described it, was still a consequence of govt ownership of public utils.  Unless the entire market is open to economic forces, it isn’t “privatized” in any real sense of the word.

If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

R108,

Amen!  De-regulating one half of the supply-demand equation while maintaining government control of the other half is an open invitation to exactly the sort of disaster that precipitated the Enron crisis.

“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”

Here in our area we still have REA owned electric suppliers. Their billing rates are twice the non-gov companies, they have recurring outages and you have to pay yearly dues on top of your monthly bill. 1/4 mile down the road residences are on Central Electric(REA). They are currently without electric, no answer as to why, no timeline as to when their power will be restored. This is a 3 or 4 time a year occurence.

This is not a local problem. Gov run utility companies all over the country have these exact same problems.

We, 1/4 mile up the road, are on Allegheny Power. The last time we lost power was 5 years ago during a major ice and wind storm. Power restored to 320,000 customers in 16 hours. Central Electric(REA) was hit by the same storm, took them 7 days, SEVEN DAYS, to restore service to 102,000 customers. Same terrain, same weather. One month later Central Electric(REA) raised their baseline rate for residential and commercial service. Our rates have actually declined during the last 5 years.

So who is screwing up utility companies/services?

Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

Thank you for this Blog. I have a friend dying of a head tumor--have been trying to locate this substance, dichloroacetate (DCA) here in Canada for her, on behalf of her family. If anyone knows where we can find a supply would sure appreciate it. Have been trying to source via pharmacies and industrial supply. At this stage, she’s game to try anything. If anyone knows how we can source, please advise. Thank you!

PS:  We’ve tried to get her on clinical trials--but to no avail. We know this can help--she doesn’t have a lot of time left
Thanks

Hi Sheila,

I’m in the same boat as you - partner has multiple tumors and has very little time left - trying to find a source (and treatment plan) for DCA.  I’d be interested in comparing notes!

Sheila,

It looks like DCA would actually be given as Sodium Dichloroacetate and that drug compound seems to be (at least under the FDA) a schedule II, rx-only drug, and therefore only a doctor or PA can prescribe it.  You are unlikely to find a source yourself, through normal channels at least.  :(
It is quite ridiculous to have a person die a horrible death simply because of red tape on an other-wise safe drug.  We have litrally thousands of people dying today, and tomorrow and so on, that might have had a chance with this drug, but because of ‘rules’ the drug stays on the shelves and the person dies.  Even condemmed murderers are given a last request. 
-Stephen

With a prescription from a physician, certain compounding specialized pharmacies could provide capsules of sodium dichloroacetate at the dosage prescribed. It is worth exploring that avenue.

Does anyone have any idea where DCA(sodium dichloroacetate ) can be purchased. Is it only available to chemists, pharmacists, etc?

Physicians would be reluctant to prescribe DCA since they would be prescribing it for a condition that it has not been tested on and that leaves them open to liability issues.  Pharmacists can obviously obtain it (or may already stock it), but they can’t give it out without a prescription (i.e. Dr is taking responsibility for the drug use).

At least that’s my understanding at this point.  I’d love to hear different.
-Stephen

I have been searching the WWW for days tryng to find a aource for DCA. I am dying of liver cancer, and this may be my lst shot at staying alive. Does anyone know a source? reply: