We are looking for a cure for AIDS when we should be trying to find a cure for it. This is a question of incentives. by Troy Camplin
(libertarian)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
There are two reasons why we will not be finding a cure for AIDS anytime in the near future. And one of them is not the fact that we have never developed a cure for any virus before. We have vaccinated against viruses before (polio and smallpox being the most famously wiped out by vaccination but why has it been so long since we had at minimum a vaccination cure?), but we have never developed a cure for one. Yet this is not the reason I am pessimistic.
I am fully confident that we will have the technological ability to wipe out AIDS. HIV has some features that make it one of the best candidates for being the first virus to be cured even if it has other features that make a vaccine of it impossible. But technology is not the problem here. The problem is inherent in the social-political system. Nobody who could cure AIDS wants to.
This is not as insidious as it sounds. We are merely talking about incentives here. As comedian Chris Rock once said, they will never cure AIDS the money's not in the cure, it's in the treatment. The money's in the comeback. And he's right. If a pharmaceutical company can keep you alive with AIDS for 50 years, they will. That's 50 years of profits from treating you. This is in their best interests as a company. If they came up with a cure, there would be a short-term profit from selling it to everyone (assuming the government did not figure out a way to nationalize the cure, in the "best interest" of mankind), and then that would be the end of it. Once everyone was cured of AIDS, there would be no more HIV infections, and the cure would be useless. No company CEO in his right mind would want a product that eliminated its own need to be used.
The second reason why we will not be finding a cure for AIDS anytime in the near future is because of the way we fund AIDS research. There are university labs out there who are actively looking for a cure for AIDS they are not tied into the company profit motive, so one could argue that they are more likely to find a cure. However, we have a similar problem here was we have with the companies. These labs get grants to look for a cure for AIDS. Please note my wording here: they get money to LOOK for a cure, not to FIND one. IF you know that so long as you are looking for something, you will continue to get millions of dollars, wouldn't you continue to look, without bothering to find what you are looking for? Again, I don't think this is a conscious choice. But the fact of the matter is that there are labs across the U.S. that would cease to get money year after year if a cure for AIDS were found. Thus, it is not in these labs' best interest to find a cure only to continue looking for one.
I'm sure there are a few people out there who sincerely want to find a cure for AIDS. Unfortunately, they are not numerous enough to increase the odds of actually finding a cure. We cannot only rely on the people who are looking for a cure for the "right reasons." I personally don't care if you find the cure because you are altruistic or greedy so long as you find the cure. We need to change the incentive structure. We need to stop paying people to look for a cure for AIDS, and instead pay them to find one. What this means is that we should at the very least create an award perhaps a combination of government and private funding for the person who finds a cure for AIDS. Various governments from around the world could contribute to it, as well as private individuals. And people could continue contributing to it over time. I would think that the award should be at least in the billions of dollars. It should be such a large award that any incentive not to find a cure is wiped out. And this award should be in addition to the money made from the cure itself being used. Typically I'm not one to advocate governments spending money on much but I think it is clear that in a case such as this, they money spent on the award would result in far less money being spent in the future.
We need to stop being romantic about somebody coming up with a cure out of the goodness of their hearts. A cure will only come about when a sufficiently large carrot is dangled in front of those who have the ability to develop a cure. None of this nonsense about what people "should" be doing, that they "should" find a cure because it's the "right thing to do." If we want actual results (and the people who speak such nonsense do not want actual results, only to feel good about themselves having judged others for doing things for the "wrong" reasons), we have to change the structure of our incentives. This is the only way we will actually ever find a cure for AIDS. And once this works, we can move on to cancer and any of a number of other diseases. Cures will come only when we reward the finding of cures rather than the looking for them.
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Great Article and true to capitalist incentive of good medicine. I find it funny that we humans fear certain types of death more than others. Political action committees will blast numbers at your face like oh, Xxx,xxx number of people die from AIDS/HIV every year in location x ect. Religion (all of them) make contraceptives and aplicable science from occuring in regions where AIDS is an epidemic. (Condoms blocked by all 3 monotheistic religions Islam, Judaism, and Christianity) There is also a large number of people who want to apply ethical standards to stem cells.
If we fear death so much based on numbers (Iraq, AIDS/HIV, Cancer), then I want someone to find a cure for car crashes. Known preventatives are so effective and cheap now, but people are too stupid to use them. I say educate and then let the stupid die.
Good article. Can you blame the pharma companies? Not really. As the saying goes, "Don't blame the players, blame the game."
Pharma companies, like all public companies answer to the shareholders. Shareholders want long term profit growth. And what type of drug allows pharma companies to deliver long term profit growth to shareholders? Answer: Any drug that keeps you healthy that you MUST take for life. So it's not like the pharma companies don't want you to live a long healthy life. They want you to be as healthy as possible, just not completely cured.
There is another reason that we will never see a cure to HIV that the author did not mention.The clinical trial process. The clinical trial process in the US has resulted in the safest drugs in the world. However, there is a downside as it relates to finding a cure. Let's say you have some bright university researcher who is working on a vaccine that he/she believes will eliminate HIV. In order to bring that vaccine to market, it must first go through the clinical trial process. Federal and state grant money is not enough to fund a Phase III clinical trial, so who does the university researcher have to turn to? Pharma companies! The exact companies who are not interested in finding a cure in the first place.
Bottom line...unlike the author, I don't believe there is any incentive that is large enough to get pharma to budge and deliver an HIV cure when they're currently reaping billions year after year from HIV treatment drugs.
I really enjoyed this article, and I am glad that I came across it. You are absolutely right about this, and your opinions are very uplifting. Lately, I have been in research as to why there isn't a cure and I would like to become very active in the organization of gathering money from governments and grants to find a cure. I am currently a junior at Rutgers University and I plan on going to law school to change some of the "bullshit" going on with big pharma. companies. I will apreciate any response from you!
I would avoid government at all costs precisely because they will try to control what you are doing if you get money from them. The key to winning this battle isn't through government or changing the laws, but rather by the private pursuit of a cure. It will take someone who is more interested in a cure rather than profit maximization to come up with a cure. As I point out in the article, the key is providing proper incentives. Can you make it worth someone's while to have a cure rather than to merely provide treatment? A private foundation or nonprofit that collects money to fund cure research and/or to offer a reward for finding a cure would be more likely to give us a cure in the future than our current system or any sort of system run by or funded by the government. Remember, the companies are doing what they are doing for profit, but politicians are doing what they are doing for power -- and that is a far more dangerous incentive for wrongdoing than is profit.
Its true people will make money off sick people. I dont have aids or hiv and i have no family or friends that do. I have had a dream now for 8 years and its always the same, where im sitting on a cloud in space looking at the earth in front of me. Behind me is the gates to heven and to my right is jesus, he tells me its not my time, i ask him well when is my time , he says i cant tell you that, i ask well what can you tell me. He says i can tell you what the cure for aids is , i say ok then he opens his hand and i see a small frog in his hand then he says its time to wake up. I have had this dream for 8 years now and i dont know what it means maybe someone can tell me what it means or even look into it by testing frog dna or something inside them should have the cure. Im a poor man that has no wealth to put towards tring to see if thats true or not. Anyone please email me at blackdragon2728@yahoo.com if they have tested it or what this dream means and the only thing i can do about it is post what happen in my dream.
Posted By: Neiman Johnson
Date: 2009-04-25 15:58:36
but the seaweed extract failed 3 people out of 100 for vaccine. And, they no longer study leeches anymore. Hey, I tried!! I don't have a.i.d.s nor h.i.v., i just like to contribute to society. When "you" save someones life at a very young age you have a tendencey to help.
I totally agree. I am a military trained scientist and I have developed a way to kill viruses and no one was or has been interested. It is sad that the incentive of money rules over the lives of our fellow human beings.
"You" "all" can say this and that..... i can even upload much of my works being downsized in to what i consider to be the cures and vaccines for such things as cancer and aids/hiv. my father was once part of the military and now works for a telebroadcasting company. He's very egotistical and hates the fact i've even researched such matters then too fought for rights here in the south. If you're not giving in to and taking orders from those you don't like then you're basically nothing. he himself stated he wants to be the white man and he's lakota westindian and irish.
I've experienced nearly 11 or 12 hate crimes that nearly took my life and it took for them (my parents) to barely sit down and talk with me for them to finally begin to come to terms with what was going on with me let alone understand, and comprehend what i went through here at 29.
He came hollering at me president obama wouldn't get me a grant he also told me before he (president obama) wrote me back urging me to get back in touch, that president obama wouldn't contact me the first time. Any how so many find out 'bout this and that.... And all they want is an example rather than to help. And, my father hops to it giving every bit of what they "need" time and time again.
Most don't do things out of the goodness out their hearts as adults, grown role models, or parents.... So, for someone whom has been working on finding a cure out of elimination due to trial and error, research, and comparison via the use of the internet and the studying of certain earth elements. Well....... is most unacceptable.
Just like for me to have saved a ladies life when i was five. Most hate to hear that but there's all kind of stories about how animals saved their owners from tornadoes and hurricanes broadcasted all over the internet, radio, and television. I'm not with it i know too much about too much. Makes sense but most would like to see me with out. I'm on the verge of being homeless and many so called girlfriends have had their part in helping with that and many have tried to take my life in and out the home needless to say with my dad's help.
If at all interested in an actual chance for a cure being that i'm totally aware of how lousy people are when it comes to giving someone a chance whom doesn't annoy the police department let alone work for the military. I'm looking to help yet again but would like space and healthy living environment in whole people are human i don't think it's an absolute must that we be nasty....
And as for the goodness of heart efforts!?!? It helps but most think it's time to clean their "plate" and hate some more instead of appreciate and participate where wanted or even needed. I've got my works notarized and was looking to call the white house today to see how long it takes for them to respond especially to matters like this. 4 out of 10 don't want to be slaves which makes for a war in the workplace So waiting on those at labs to put much effort into really finding cures and vaccines let alone reaching out to those looking to help is basically not an answer. I do have to say if at all hard to understand in the readings up above. president obama did write me back where i have written him back some time in late july of this year 2011.
Unfortunately, I still live at home with my father. There's been a world wide hunt for the cure limited resources much problem and even fervor to those whom like to hinder or retard those with potential of bringing better to the world as it "stands". But my works are an offer are they cure or vaccine maybe or maybe not they make a whole lot of sense when reading the possibilities and potentials. But unlimited examples needs to come to an end. That type of learning mindset runs one too many "thinker(s)" if you don't minde me saying.
