Possible HIV cure?

[Ozy_Flame]

Well it's still far off, but promising new research might just be that breakthrough that millions of people have been hoping for.

Although after those Korean stem cell researchers promised us a breakthrough and subsequently revealed this as a hoax / untrue, I'm a little hesitant to believe any major breakthroughs in general.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4696496.stm

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3482712

[Canada 02]

Back in 1995ish the director of the Mcgill AIDS Centre and the president of the International AIDS Society gave a lecture at the U of C. He talked about two drugs, AZT and 3TC - drugs he had a hand in researching/developing. His whole lecture sounded like a sales pitch for these drugs on behalf of the big pharma companies. At the end he said that combination therapy (the so-called 3 drug cocktail) would ultimately be the cure for HIV. 10 years later we know how wrong that is. The drugs are quite effective, but requires patients to take the drugs for the rest of their lives at a cost of $12000+ per year. The persistent use of the drugs also leads to drug-resistant strains of the virus. Anyways, the moral of the story, don't believe the promotion of drugs or potential cures by scientists - they are in it to make big money for big pharma. They make way more money if they develop drugs that need to be consumed in perpetuity. Also, if the drug is effective, it will be crazy expensive and will lead to 'stronger' drug resistant strains - HIV may become/is a managed disease, I highly doubt it will ever be a cured disease.

[toonmaster]

but doesnt the united states have a clause of some sort that if a "revolutionary" medical discovery is found, that after testing and assurance that it is legit, the company has to pass over the drug to the government to prevent the demand from causing the price to sky rocket?

and also to be able to provide it to everyone in need at a reasonable cost........i dunno i could be way off here, has anyone else ever heard of this??

[Wookie]

Sign me up for the group who thinks the theory that pharmaceutical companies are conspiring to treat an not cure diseases is complete hogwash. While some things that are treatable and not a top concern may not receive much funding or continued interest due to the "bottom line" of earnings, the ones costing governments around the world billions or trillions of dollars in heath care costs like aids and cancer are in the best interests of everyone to cure.

And toastmaster that sounds familier to me too