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Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

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101–110 of 137 posts

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#101
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by that you mean they can't dictate the price of drugs, sure. But that has more to do with not being an arm of the state than being "fragmented and small".

The CHS and NHS are able to negotiate drug prices even though they can't coerce US companies with force.

"You give us this price or we don't use your drug" isn't coercion?

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure? I don't find that claim in the articles or report. The bone marrow procedures seem performed in the context of the chemotherapy treatment - which failed in combination. They dont seem to indicate how necessary or unnecessary that combination was to this treatments success here.

The "Subject 1" and "Subject 2" sections of the paper both speak of persistent malignancy in bone marrow.

I have not the experience to read this report with any confidence, but your comments are so far too brief to convince me that you have. Fig 2 in the report includes a chart which appears to indicate a bone marrow reading clearing in response to application of allo-SCT. How do you ascertain that this treatment does not in itself improve malignancy in bone marrow?

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#103
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is propaganda. Spending on research and development at private pharmaceutical companies is dramatically eclipsed by marketing and sales spend. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/...

Yes, but sales and marketing has a positive ROI. If you spend $100M on sales and marketing, you'll get $150M back (for example). Otherwise, why would you do it? So if pharma companies cut out all of their sales and marketing, they'd have even less revenue than they do today. And that would lower R&D spend.

Why do drugs need marketing?

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "Subject 1" and "Subject 2" sections of the paper both speak of persistent malignancy in bone marrow.

I have not the experience to read this report with any confidence, but your comments are so far too brief to convince me that you have. Fig 2 in the report includes a chart which appears to indicate a bone marrow reading clearing in response to application of allo-SCT. How do you ascertain that this treatment does not in itself improve malignancy in bone marrow?

These “off-the-shelf” CAR T cells were then used to treat two infants with relapsed refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia and bridge them to allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

I don't have much knowledge of the subject but a stem cell/bone marrow transplant seems to be a common treatment in aggressive cases of leukemia.

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#105
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please offer an alternative rationale for why they aren't as effective. I'm trying to understand why US healthcare is so broken.

It's easy. The UK can say "no" to paying for certain drugs. They take some political flak for it, but overall they've been able to keep spending down. Even mention not paying for something in the US and holy hell happens. Even Medicare and Medicaid can't say no for the most part. If American's want cheaper healthcare they are going to have to get used to having less of it and not get all the fancy new technology righ…

Insurance companies only pay for what they consider usual and customary.

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#106
post #76
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of $4,000 doesn't take into account R&D costs, which must be recuperated in the drug's price.

It also doesn't take into account marketing costs, which also must be recuperated in the drug's price, and are much bigger then the R&D costs...

Why do they need marketing?

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#107
post #35

Does anyone here know which companies are looking for software engineers to help with this kind of stuff?

I just got an email from a colleague that the Roswell Park Cancer Institute is looking for software developers and cloud developers. They're a good group doing good things.

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#108
post #76
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost of $4,000 doesn't take into account R&D costs, which must be recuperated in the drug's price.

It also doesn't take into account marketing costs, which also must be recuperated in the drug's price, and are much bigger then the R&D costs...

Simply not true.

Most drugs never make it past phase 3 trials, so fail in R&D before marketing.

Gilead didn't need a lot of marketing for its HepC cure to become a blockbuster and propel them to be the 6th biggest pharma.

DTC is also illegal in all countries except the US and NZ, so it's not even possible to spend that much. Sunshine Act in various countries, China putting execs in jail, etc. The world has moved on.

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#109

>And I guarantee you even if things were equal, which they are not, you would want your own stuff, not someone else’s cells. This sounds like wishful thinking from VC who just put a lot of money into the Bespoke solution. The idea of immunotherapy is that your injecting cells that can attack the cancer. What does it matter it it's your own cells especially when the cost is an order of magnitude bigger.

Yep. In medicine "other people's stuff" is used quite often...blood transfusions...sperm donors...organ transplants...etc.

Re: Two Infants Treated with Universal Immune Cells Have Their Cancer Vanish

#110
post #35

Does anyone here know which companies are looking for software engineers to help with this kind of stuff?

Check out http://www.parkerici.org/. Their head offices are in San Francisco, but they work with a lot of labs across the US.
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