Thread: New Cheap/Effective Cancer Drug: Big Pharma Says NO WAY!

New Cheap and Effective Cancer Drug: But Big Pharma Says NO WAY!

Will Dr. Evangelos Michelakis' Invention be blocked by a Profit Driven Pharmaceutical Industry?


CTV
November 28, 2009


University of Alberta Researcher Dr. Evangelos Michelakis has developed an effective drug which can be used to treat cancer. The project of this inexpensive drug does not fit the plans of the Pharmaceutical industry.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpRkIW5u ... r_embedded

CTV Background Article
Researchers at the University of Alberta have reported that a drug that has been used for decades in the treatment of rare disorders of metabolism, holds promise as a potential effective drug for the treatment of several forms of cancer. Dichloroacetate (DCA) appears to alter the metabolism of cancer cells, without affecting that of normal cells, leading to regression of cancers in test tubes and animals, without apparent toxicity.

These results are exciting and offer hope that similar success might follow its use on the treatment of patients with cancer. The work was published in a prestigious medical journal (Cancer Cell) and has already attracted the interest of media and patients around the world. The interest of the public focuses around two important questions:

1) What do these findings mean for real patients with cancer and how likely are that the tumors growing in patients will respond to the drug in a manner similar to the tumors growing in animals?

There are numerous examples in the history of Medicine of therapies or drugs that failed to show benefit in real patients despite promising effects in animals. The research team at the University of Alberta is optimistic because the tumors studied were actually human cancers growing into animals. In addition, DCA has already been used in real patients for decades and has shown a good safety profile (although the number of patients was relatively small and these were not cancer patients). However, one has to wait for properly performed clinical trials before any conclusions regarding the efficacy and safety of this drug can be drawn.

2) Since the drug is already used and no company owns a patent or its rights (meaning that the drug will not bring the huge profits that other patented drugs bring in pharmaceutical companies), who will fund the many millions of dollars required for multicenter, multinational clinical trials?

The research team at the University of Alberta has been working on this project for more than 2 years now. Early on, two of the investigators (Drs Michelakis and Archer) filed for a “useâ€

That sounds very promising. I wish them well with raising the money for their clinical trials.