--- Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Yes and no. It is possible to come up with vacines > to prevent viral > diseases. The polio vacine is a great example of > this. When the virus > mutates on a regular basis, (e.g. the flu), the > vacine is not as effective > against the mutated form. The greater the mutation, > the less immuity that > a previous exposure/vacine gives. > > We now have a hepititus B vacine (IIRC), as well as > German measles, > measles, and mumps. They have all been developed > during the last 30-40 > years.
Sorry - by anti-viral research I meant literally, research on "anti-virals" - drugs that can be used to treat viral infections, not just vaccines. There has, in fact, been considerable work done on vaccines in the last 50 years. Here is (_again_) an area where the industry gets screwed, though. When a vaccine is put on the market, either or both of two things usually happens: 1. The government becomes the sole purchaser, exercises monopsony power, and sets a price so low that the vaccine never pays off the investment to develop it 2. The pharmaco that puts out the vaccine gets sued on specious grounds, and ends up having to pay through the nose I don't see, though, how either of these two things are the industry's _fault_. If anything, those pharmacos that do still do vaccine research (and some do) should be praised (although not, probably, by their shareholders) for being willing to continue on with this sort of research in this environment. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
