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However, as DCA is not patented, Michelakis is concerned that it may be difficult to find funding from private investors to test DCA in clinical trials.

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Originally written by Semitanic:

Despite several recent advertising blitzes by pharmaceutical companies, I don't really understand what good public opinion does for pharma. The public doesn't get to choose to be consumers. That decision largely rests in the hands of doctors, and those doctors are making medical, not moral, decisions when they determine which therapies are most likely to be successful.

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—Alorael, who is more worried about the fates of drugs that are developed and approved but then not manufactured because the demand is so low that the company can't expect to profit. What should be done? Is the government obligated to purchase the patent, make the drug, and take the loss from taxpayers for the benefit of a few victims of rare diseases?

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Originally written by Semitanic:

—Alorael, who overlooked an even bigger mystery of advertising. Drug companies talking about how they help sick people get better are improving their images for unclear reasons. But what about the companies advertising specific prescription drugs? How many people successfully march into the doctor's office and demand X? Obviously enough to make advertising lucrative, but what does that say about doctors and ad viewers?

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Originally written by Randomizer:

Drug makers spend lots of money sending representatives to visit doctors and convince them to prescribe their drugs. The side effects and the fact that their drug maybe no better than a placebo (sugar pill) are usually minimized.

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They also like to push off label usage where they claim that it will help for other diseases that haven't been approved by the FDA. Sometimes these case are pure fraud and only harm patients. An example is antidepressants to elderly for dementia where it doesn't help and can increase the chance of bone fractures.

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Originally written by Deprecaticon:

If I were a giant, self-centered pharmaceutical company, I would be dashing to sponsor research trials for a promising cancer treatment with little potential for profit. If it actually panned out, the payout in good publicity would be unimaginable, and priceless.

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Originally written by 7Synergy7:

Semantics are suggestive, and perhaps carefully chosen. Side effects are effects just as much as the intended "primary" effect(s).

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Originally written by Semitanic:

—Alorael, who actually was completely unaware of any link between cancer and mitochondrial dysfunction. Classifying cancer as a metabolic disease would be a big paradigm shift.

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Originally posted by Robinator:
However, if the cause really does lie in the mitochondria, this is especially interesting since the organelles have their own DNA, unrelated to the genetic DNA of their owner. Hmmm...

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Oh, and a quick fact: since mitochondrial DNA isn't affected by reproduction like genetic DNA, there are only about 17 different sequences of mitochondrial DNA in all of humanity.

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Unlike nuclear DNA in which the genes are rearranged by ~50% each generation (due to the process called recombination), there is usually no change in mtDNA from parent to offspring by this mechanism. Because of this and the fact that its mutation rate is higher than nuclear DNA and easily measured, mtDNA is a powerful tool for tracking matrilineage, and has been used in this role for tracking many species back hundreds of generations.

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The human genetic code, or genome, is 99.9 percent identical throughout the world. What's left is the DNA responsible for our individual differences—in eye color or disease risk, for example—as well as some that serves no apparent function at all. Once in an evolutionary blue moon, a random, harmless mutation can occur in one of these functionless stretches, which is then passed down to all of that person's descendants. Generations later, finding that same mutation, or marker, in two people's DNA indicates that they share the same ancestor. By comparing markers in many different populations, scientists can trace their ancestral connections.

In most of the genome, these minute changes are obscured by the genetic reshuffling that takes place each time a mother and father's DNA combine to make a child. Luckily a couple of regions preserve the telltale variations. One, called mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), is passed down intact from mother to child. Similarly, most of the Y chromosome, which determines maleness, travels intact from father to son.

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Originally written by Robinator is a Beefcake:

On second thought...

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Unlike nuclear DNA in which the genes are rearranged by ~50% each generation (due to the process called recombination), there is usually no change in mtDNA from parent to offspring by this mechanism. Because of this and the fact that its mutation rate is higher than nuclear DNA and easily measured, mtDNA is a powerful tool for tracking matrilineage, and has been used in this role for tracking many species back hundreds of generations.

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—Wikipedia

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