Pills sold for profit discovered by for-profit companies and pills sold otherwise by non-profit companies probably have the same curative rates. People like to

Pills sold for profit discovered by for-profit companies and pills sold otherwise by non-profit companies probably have the same curative rates. People like to demonize drug companies, but really, they are just confronted with terribly complex problems. You see pills that treat symptoms more often than pills that cure because of this complexity. On the road to a cure, there are many things discovered. They can be applied to make the patients life better in the interim -- and they should. However, I agree whole-heartedly that this is the type of medicine that needs to be done more often. Researchers are victims of the "can`t see the forest for the trees" problem -- especially in medicine. There is a disconnect between bedside and lab bench that is artificial and limiting. Interestingly, patients are starting to collaborate, swapping notes about things they remembered -- looking at things from an admittedly naive but certainly systemic approach. There are now even websites designed to help patients conduct what are almost emergent trials. (See: http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_heywood_the_big_idea_my_brother_inspired.html http://www.ted.com/talks/jamie_heywood_the_big_idea_my_broth...) However, it should be noted that (thankfully) medicine is moving towards a more systemic approach.