I'm sorry, but I don't buy for a minute the paranoid "they don't want you to have access to the cure" I see in this and other health forums from time to time for chronic diseases. That's scare-mongering, pure and simple.

I know many researchers and I know some people who work in pharma. Nobody is withholding any secret cures for any diseases because it is "more profitable" to just provide maintenance therapy.

The PR bump and the sheer amount of money one would make for curing any of these diseases -- especially cancer -- is immeasurable. It would be the equivalent of inventing aspirin.

Researchers don't like to stop at "Oh, this will help maintain you at your present level of functioning." They know that's not equivalent to a cure. And most are so passionate about their life's-long work, they will keep on it until they find the answer or have to retire.

I also tire of people comparing apples and oranges. Mechanical, technology and space engineering has little in common with medical research. So while it is indeed quite spectacular we put a man on the moon, it really has no bearing on the fact that diseases like cancer are so difficult to cure. We still are only at the cusp of beginning to understand our brain, our most important organ. How amazing is it that we even have treatments for some of these things when we only have a cursory theory of how the brain works??

Again, I understand the frustration with the pace of research and the feeling that more money would solve everything. Money helps, but at the end of the day, it's just one part of the equation. Look at all the money spent on cancer research over the past 3 decades -- billions. And still, no cure -- and many of the treatments are only somewhat better than the cancer itself.

DocJohn