5 ms·

Every little step in fields like this is so encouraging. We keep getting better, but the cancers don't. Ever more effective cocktails of drugs that target the

Every little step in fields like this is so encouraging. We keep getting better, but the cancers don't. Ever more effective cocktails of drugs that target the cancers while minimising harm to everywhere else, the closer we get to attacking cancer cells from so many different directions they simply can't adapt in time and we wipe it out immediately (a cure). One can only hope. I whether we might see even more investment into research like this as it gets closer to deliver curative, rather than just suppressive outcomes, as well

mjewkes 2y ago
CAR-T may have a ~50% cure rate for blood cancers: https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/141/19/2307/494672/Five-year-follow-up-of-ZUMA-1-supports-the https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/141/19/2307/494672...
- alexissantos 2y ago
  My uncle underwent CAR-T therapy and the turn around was amazing. He's got a brand new lease on life. We would have lost him without it.
  - jjtheblunt 2y ago
    What disease did it address?
xk_id 2y ago
> whether we might see even more investment into research The field would benefit greatly from even a fraction of the investment in the AI and crypto bubbles
- AStonesThrow 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - tptacek 2y ago
    I don't believe this even in the most charitable reading.
    - Supermancho 2y ago
      Some people are convinced that healthcare initiatives are so corrupt as to be theater, in regard to finding new treatments, somehow forgetting that the competition is measured on a race to the highest survival rating (both in large populations and small populations looking to grow - ie Israel). Billions of dollars is nothing if you have billions of people paying even 20$ a month for the duration of their extended lives, going forward through history (since cancer wont stop). It's a purile fantasy that their is a cabal of mustache twirlers, sabotaging medical discovery. Do you know what motivates hedges to fund new startups effectively? Success in previous investments. Drug cures have nothing but upsides for every economic strata.
      - xk_id 2y ago
        Except there is an overabundance of historical evidence of hedge funds giving almost exclusive preference to research which is highly predictable and has negligible impact, as long as it can result in a patent. See for example below. Aging research is one of the most eclectic areas, because it touches on virtually all biological systems. There are countless promising directions which are grossly underexplored. Yet this massive hedge fund chose to invest in discovering new analogs to older drugs. Why? Because the older drugs are effective, discovering new analogs is easy and the patented products can then be marketed. For general overview of the fund: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/07/1053132/saudi-arabia-slow-aging-metformin/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/07/1053132/saudi-ar... Their first major investment was in analogues of a decades old drug called rapamycin: https://www.hevolution.com/en/web/guest/w/hevolution-foundation-announces-20-million-impact-investment-to-advance-promising-aging-therapies-leading-a-50-million-series-a-extension-in-aeovian-pharmaceuticals https://www.hevolution.com/en/web/guest/w/hevolution-foundat... So, yes. There is a provable cabal of mustache twirling investors who optimise for profit, at the cost of impact. Why you would defend them, in spite of your self-professed rational interest in the positive externalities of revolutionary healthcare, is beyond me.

mjewkes 2y ago

CAR-T may have a ~50% cure rate for blood cancers: https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/141/19/2307/494672/Five-year-follow-up-of-ZUMA-1-supports-the https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/141/19/2307/494672...

alexissantos 2y ago
My uncle underwent CAR-T therapy and the turn around was amazing. He's got a brand new lease on life. We would have lost him without it.
- jjtheblunt 2y ago
  What disease did it address?

xk_id 2y ago

> whether we might see even more investment into research The field would benefit greatly from even a fraction of the investment in the AI and crypto bubbles

AStonesThrow 2y ago
[flagged]
- tptacek 2y ago
  I don't believe this even in the most charitable reading.
  - Supermancho 2y ago
    Some people are convinced that healthcare initiatives are so corrupt as to be theater, in regard to finding new treatments, somehow forgetting that the competition is measured on a race to the highest survival rating (both in large populations and small populations looking to grow - ie Israel). Billions of dollars is nothing if you have billions of people paying even 20$ a month for the duration of their extended lives, going forward through history (since cancer wont stop). It's a purile fantasy that their is a cabal of mustache twirlers, sabotaging medical discovery. Do you know what motivates hedges to fund new startups effectively? Success in previous investments. Drug cures have nothing but upsides for every economic strata.
    - xk_id 2y ago
      Except there is an overabundance of historical evidence of hedge funds giving almost exclusive preference to research which is highly predictable and has negligible impact, as long as it can result in a patent. See for example below. Aging research is one of the most eclectic areas, because it touches on virtually all biological systems. There are countless promising directions which are grossly underexplored. Yet this massive hedge fund chose to invest in discovering new analogs to older drugs. Why? Because the older drugs are effective, discovering new analogs is easy and the patented products can then be marketed. For general overview of the fund: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/07/1053132/saudi-arabia-slow-aging-metformin/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/07/1053132/saudi-ar... Their first major investment was in analogues of a decades old drug called rapamycin: https://www.hevolution.com/en/web/guest/w/hevolution-foundation-announces-20-million-impact-investment-to-advance-promising-aging-therapies-leading-a-50-million-series-a-extension-in-aeovian-pharmaceuticals https://www.hevolution.com/en/web/guest/w/hevolution-foundat... So, yes. There is a provable cabal of mustache twirling investors who optimise for profit, at the cost of impact. Why you would defend them, in spite of your self-professed rational interest in the positive externalities of revolutionary healthcare, is beyond me.