[geeks] Drug prices (was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro)

[Phil Stracchino]

Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
> Phil Stracchino wrote:
>> And if their doctor says "That drug isn't appropriate for your 
>> condition" or advises against it for some other reason, far too many
>>  people will just doctor-hop until they find one who'll prescribe
>> what they want.  Parents who want the latest, greatest antibiotic for
>> their kid's cough and runny nose, and don't understand that there's
>> no cure for the common cold.
> 
> They (and the rest of us all) will be sorry when there are no effective
> antibiotics left.  I mean, how many [bacteria]  are already resistant to
> vancomycin?  I've needed vancomycin before because of an infection that 
> was resistant to other antibiotics, so I know how serious the side 
> effects are.  I shudder to think what the next step in that progression 
> will be.

Yeah.  I had to have a two-week course of IV vancomycin once, about 
eight years ago, for a multiresistant enterococcus bone infection in my 
left foot.  There are strains of S. aureus now that are resistant to 
everything except vancomycin, and others that are resistant to 
everything except methicillin.  There are XDR-TB[0] strains that are 
vulnerable only to a cocktail combination of three different drugs, each 
one of which they are individually resistant to.  A number of medical 
folks I've talked to about the subject agree that it's only a matter of 
time before a bacterial strain develops that is resistant to *all* 
currently known antibiotics.  If it's a strain of something contagious 
and nasty, we'll be well and truly fucked, and a lot of people will die.

There are new families of antibacterial drugs under development based on 
novel mechanisms to which it is currently believed that bacteria cannot 
develop resistance.  But I'll believe that when I see it[1], and in any 
case, none of them are even close to ready for market yet.

[0]  see http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66187.php

[1]  I'd be willing to believe "none of the resistance mechanisms 
hitherto observed in existing bacteria will work", but not a blanket 
"resistance is futile".


-- 
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
          Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                  It's not the years, it's the mileage.