Tzahi Fadida wrote: > Lets see if I understand you correctly. A company created an AIDS cocktail. now, >because it was so expensive for them to create, they want a return in the short term, >i.e.: 3-5 years. Taking your perspective, would also mean that 1 third from the third >world can just stick their heads in the sand > and hope some miracle dust will cure them. This method is ridiculous, and should be >prohibited. Greedy > profiteers always existed throughout history enjoying the suffering of the weak and >helpless. > Thank you for clearing that out.
But you are missing an important point. In order to create the "cocktail", the cost of testing the medicines and the paperwork involved was several million dollars just to reach the point that applications for testing on humans was reached. Condisdering the production costs of the drugs involved, they would be over $10,000,000 in the hole before they stated. Once they received approval for human testing, the cost of tests could be another $5,000,000 PLUS 20-30 million for the drugs. The final result would be, in the US, assuming favorable saftey and efficacy results, well over 300,000 pages of documentaton, submitted on line in searchable form and 9 paper copies. Now they wait the 3-5 years for the FDA to approve (or not) the drug. During that time, they may be able to get "fast track" approval, and only wait 2 years. If at any time the FDA, who is constantly monitoring the process decides the drug is too dangerous or does not work the whole thing stops and all the invested money goes down the toilet. So don't make the mistake of confusing a couple of Israeli teenagers in a hole in the wall office in silicon valley (e.g. ICQ), with the process of developing ethical pharmaceuticals. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson Bloomberg L.P., BFM (Israel) 2 hours ahead of London, 7 hours ahead of New York. Tel: 972-(0)3-754-1158 Fax 972-(0)3-754-1236 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
