For as long as there has been research to cure diabetes, there have been people who believe that a cure will never happen because treating this disease is simply far too profitable. Those who believe in this so-called “conspiracy theory” are convinced that pharma companies have a vested interest in keeping diabetes around as long as possible because peddling their treatments is far bigger business than a cure could ever be.
We all know that diabetes is a multi-billion dollar industry, including sales of insulin, oral agents and injectibles like
Victoza, and medical devices such as insulin pumps, glucose monitors and their pricey test strips, and new continuous glucose monitors. Type 2 diabetes is increasing exponentially, but even type 1 diabetes is growing at a dramatic rate, which means more and more consumers.
The latest flare-up over a possible “conspiracy” occurred in August, when a news article about controversial researcher Dr. Denise Faustman circulated around the diabetes community. In the article, Faustman says that when she approached pharmaceutical companies for funding, she was told “there wasn’t enough money to be made in a cure that used an inexpensive, generically available vaccine.”
But is that even true?
Certainly, there are legitimate financial considerations these companies’ research & development decisions. But does that mean they never work on cure research? Would pharma really sweep a possible cure under the rug to protect their own interests — especially if it turned out to be a cheap vaccine?
Who’s to say?
We decided it would be fascinating to tap some prominent experts in the diabetes community to get their perspective on the “D-conspiracy theory.”
Exploring Motives
Kelly Close, a type 1 PWD and president of diabetes consulting firm Close Concerns, which has analyzed the diabetes industry for over a decade, says, “Many have wondered over time whether there is a conspiracy in which pharmaceutical companies have ‘hidden’ the cure so that they could profit from insulin, blood glucose strips, and other supplies. I disagree. For starters, there is no evidence to support such a claim. More important, any company that found the cure would be celebrated and immortalized for eliminating an ancient disease. That triumph, that breakthrough, would be worth far more in prestige and honor than any 
financial gain derived from these products.”
Kelly adds, “Besides, diabetes is so prevalent today that rare is a corporate manager who doesn’t know someone who has some form of the disease. I think that manager would be more motivated to help his friend or family member than to add a few more dollars to his bonus.”
In fact, last year senior investment analyst Sean Farhy wrote a piece on investor blog Seeking Alpha titled, “ Is Big Pharma Really Trying to Cure Diabetes?” He shares 10 solid reasons why pharma would not and could not hinder the cure for diabetes, including their inability to silence every researcher who came across a path to a cure, the “carryover benefits” to other diseases, lucrative licensing agreements and the clincher: type 2 diabetes will still exist even with a cure for type 1 diabetes.
That’s because, at the end of the day, no matter how similar type 1 and type 2 diabetes look on the outside, they are fundamentally different diseases on the inside.
And if it’s all about the products, why do pharma companies even bother supporting cure research at all? The diabetes community is no stranger to non-profit organizations like JDRF teaming up with Pharma (like Sanofi) for such research.
“Sanofi is not just a drug company, it is a healthcare company,” says Marc Bonnefoi, Head of the Sanofi North America R&D hub. “What drives the Sanofi R&D teams throughout this process, what drives the whole company for that matter, is a passion to improve patients’ lives through better, more targeted therapies. And if there is a possibility of cure, even remote, this is what we aim for.”
It sounds so wonderful and sincere, yet I can’t help but doubt the motives just a bit. One indelible truth is that pharma is aggressively for-profit, and is always looking for the next big “blockbuster drug.” Money can be made from a cure (as the Seeking Alpha article explains), but there’s always the issue of how high R&D costs are up-front. Could it come down to a “business decision” that some promising possible cure simply isn’t worth pursuing because the exploration phase is so expensive and it may not pan out?
Getting “Incentivized”
Dr. Camillo Ricordi, Scientific Director and Chief Academic Officer at the University of Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute, concurs with Kelly that there is no “conspiracy” related to developing a cure for diabetes.
Dr. Camillo Ricordi
“What I believe is that the cost of drug development, now well over a billion dollars, and the time required to bring a new molecule to the market (7-9 years) are such that there are careful marketing and financial factors that a for-profit entity must consider in their strategic R&D decisions,” Ricordi said.
In a video Q & A with JDRF’s president Jeffrey Brewer, he was asked: “Why does JDRF work so closely with industry?” Brewer explains that aside from academic researchers, industry plays an important role in the “pipeline” to a cure. Brewer is a little vague on the specifics, but he explains that JDRF is able to incentivize (obviously, with money) pharmaceutical companies to work on projects that they otherwise wouldn’t bother with.
Kelly and Ricordi both shared that there is quite a bit of money going into the development of a cure in the R&D of pharma companies, but that research has always been much slower than the development of new devices and drugs. We can all agree that the development of drugs and devices are painstakingly slow, so you can only imagine how slow a cure will be!
“We estimate that between $3 and $5 billion has been spent on R&D alone in the last year for therapies and technologies that will help us manage diabetes better, and we estimate that many hundreds of millions will keep going toward developing a cure,” Kelly said.
Finances have always been a guiding influence in what research is funded and approved. Scientists need to prove why they should continue getting a salary and research dollars from their institution. Many of those dollars are sourced from the government or from pharmaceutical companies. It’s an incredibly complicated web of stakeholders and investors. Ricordi says that critics label cure-research focused as “overambitious” or that they have a “high risk of failure” or “not enough preliminary evidence.” Tough sell, huh?
Meanwhile, Dr. Ricordi points out: “One patient with diabetes dies every 8 seconds.”
FDA as the Bottleneck?
But it looks like pharma’s financial priorities aren’t the only obstacle. In addition to the extraordinarily complicated biological systems that researchers must understand and then manipulate, there’s another complicated system we have to overcome: the FDA.
“There are a series of regulatory, legal and institutional barriers to the development of cures that now make up a formidable wall to the translation of potential breakthroughs emerging from basic science toward clinical trials and their delivery to patients,” Dr. Ricordi explains.
Historically, this shift occurred in the 1960s, after the development of the Polio vaccine, when the FDA went from focusing on “safety” to focusing on “efficacy,” Ricordi explained.
“While efficacy requirements may delay market approval and commercialization, the aspects that concern me most are those delaying or impeding innovation trials, making it very difficult, if not impossible, for young physician scientists to try to actually cure their patients, trying a novel strategy outside the boundaries of ‘evidence-based medicine,’” Ricordi said.
So the real “conspiracy” against a cure could very well be coming from the FDA, which doesn’t have a financial stake in keeping diabetes around but does have a vested interest in being extremely risk-averse, i.e. paranoid about approving anything that could potentially harm people. But at what cost?
“Who is accountable for the cost of doing nothing, or delaying approval, or imposing unbearable costs which make most scientists and small entities abandon the hope and battle to fight diseases and try to develop cures?”
— Dr. Camillo Ricordi, on the FDA’s role in cure research
“The regulatory agency that once was born to rightly focus on patient safety has evolved into a monster apparatus of such complexity, that now imposes such time-consuming and costly requirements for the development of a new molecular entity or a novel biologic therapy. No one can afford to develop a cure any longer — or better, very few multinational giants could afford it, if this was in their strategic interest,” Ricordi adds.
Radical Approaches
The American Diabetes Association shared that they are hoping to encourage diabetes research with their new cure-research focused “Pathway to Stop Diabetes” program.
“It takes a radical approach to attracting and retaining brilliant scientists into the field and accelerating their research progress by providing the resources and support for conducting transformative science,” a rep from the ADA said in an email. “Programs like these ensure that a future generation of scientists and clinicians will be concentrated on finding a cure for the disease.”
Are there things impeding a cure for diabetes? Definitely. There are financial and regulatory considerations, and then there’s the whole issue of the complexity of the human body. But is there someone hiding the cure for diabetes? Very unlikely. It just doesn’t make sense.
Interesting. Alex O’Meara just wrote a blog post called Corporate Cash and Curing Diabetes: People vs Profits http://asweetlife.org/alex/blogs/news-politics/corporate-cash-and-curing-diabetes-people-vs-profits/30672/
As for the Faustman conspiracy theory issue, after reading Karmel Allison’s analysis of the Fautman/BCG research I think the problem is not about the vaccine not being profitable, but about the fact that the research isn’t there yet.
http://asweetlife.org/feature/tnf-bcg-and-you-and-me-an-in-depth-look-at-the-faustman-lab-research/
I don’t believe there’s a consipiracy against a cure, only a business model that stands in the way, as well as government regulation/restrictions.
It’s truly rediculous how expensive it is to carry out clinical trials for something that might only work in mice. What is so iritating is that they will stay in the lab with mice curing them over and over and over again and not move into clinical trials with people, citing costs/lack of funds. Yet, millions were spent on mice and never progressing to testing in people. That alone works against this type of research. It’s like running a marathon and getting 2/3 way and quiting because you got a blister…
Not to mention, many of the big pharma co’s., are corporations with shareholders who want to get rich quick but with little or no risk. Especially for a disease that is ‘manageable’ to most people. Why risk billions for something manageable and only affects a small population. If anything, Type 2, is the future windfall
for big pharma that requires investment.
In the end, we are lacking the technology, knowledge, and financial commitments to curing Type 1. When was an auto-immune disease cured? The JDRF touts vaccine research and prevention but what about Polio and TB sufferers? Prevention is not a cure!
The only way to cure Type 1 is to find its root cause and focus on eradicating it. You can’t outsmart the immune system, so direct your efforts someplace else.
To say there is no profit in a cure does not mean there is a conspiracy. If anything, maybe the worst thing to have happened was the discovery and use of insulin. And yes, I am a type 1 of 30 years with other type 1 family members for as long or longer… But, it does beg the question as to where the research would be today if it wasn’t manageable?
Why does everyone say a conspiracy theory. So many things have been done or not done in the name of money. Enron, The real estate collapse and so forth. As for conspiracy and coverups for years — just ask the Tuskgee Airmen who were experimented on by the USA government. Yes there are cover up sometimes.
One more truth – there is WAY more money in treating a disease then a cure! Everyone knows this to be truth. The cure happens once, treatments can be for a life time.
As a 20+ year T1D, I’ve too heard the call for curing and not merely funding better convenient solutions for management. With that said, you will notice that in the history of the last 10 plus years, there hasn’t been a cure for anything. Even AIDS has been reduced to the same level as diabetes…. “a manageable disease.”
Seriously, the disease that threatened to wipe out half of humanity, then fueled by billions to come up with a cure… only ended up in the same realm as diabetes? How sad.
I used to think that a cure might be found by a country that had universal healthcare, as part of an initiative to cure the disease and lower the cost to the state. Yet, despite massive funding, we’re given more expensive pumps, strips, patented insulins… even new lancets (while more expensive, you know you only change it once or twice a year). We pay to get cures, we’re given more expensive treatment offerings, yet we continue on. While more convenient to manage, we’re still classified in the same category as AIDS.
Awesome work of journalism! I could not agree more. I won’t leave a long winded reply, but you nailed the point dead on. I hope my 2 daughers with Type 1 will have a cure before they hit their 30′s.
Type 1D 35+ years. Agreed.
I’ve given up my hope for a cure. What I’ve been told since I was a boy was that “the cure” was just around the corner.
What I’ve learned, sadly, is that nobody funds research for cures, they fund research for treatment. This is why the only advancement we see in Diabetes research, or research for any disease for that matter, are those that persue the advancement of the treatment of the disease.
Cures are nonsense in the in the high-dollar, corporate, pharmacological world where money is to be made. After all, why peddle a one-time vaccination when when you can peddle medicine to their insurnace companies (@129 a vile for a 2 week supply) devices, and refills for life.
No, they are not covering it up. That would be unethical and these are people working here, some of whom go to Church or Temple on Sunday’s. To the board room, the cure is somebody elses line of business. These coprorate entities are just not actively participating in “finding a cure” beyond their marketing campaigns.
An interesting article. One of the esteemed outfits dealing with Diabetes viz the Joslin center has been working on Salsalate as a cure for Diabetes for quite a few years ago. Nothing appears to have happened so far. Can’t the research be speeded up.
All the best
Continuing my earlier post. The approach to the issue is interesting. What is the question ? Is big pharma scuttling efforts to find a cure for Diabetes ? The response is brilliant ! Divert attention from Big Pharma, go to Plan B,and fix the FDA as the villian. Wow!
@Mike you do know they are closer to a cure for HIV\AIDs then diabetes and HIV|AIDS came a a lot latter the diabetes.
I don’t think there’s a conspiracy to prevent a cure from being developed, but I also don’t think that was what they were saying to Dr. Faustman. The costs to test a drug are incredible and take a long time–so, when a company can’t rely on having X number of years of a patent protection while they are the sole source of the drug, during which time they can hope to recoup the costs of development and testing, then yes, I can see them turning away. Here’s a cheap, generically available product that might work, how about spending millions on testing it for this new specific use (because even if it is safe and effective for cancer treatment, they have to test it specifically for diabetes)? probably doesn’t seem that attractive to a company.
I think it’s short sighted, and the PR value alone should be enough.
This is where–and I’ll probably get slammed for this by someone–government can and should step in. They should offer to partner with a company to share the costs of testing for this. If it works for diabetes, they should then allow that company the exclusive right to market this drug as a cure for diabetes, but only until their R&D costs are recouped. Basically allow them to treat this as a patent for a short time period. Other companies (who didn’t want to take the risk) wouldn’t be allowed to market off-label use until that period expires.
This would protect the company that took the chance that a generic drug may or may not work for this reason, and reward them for being willing to take at least some risk.
I agree with your final conclusions and believe we need to address the topic from a clear understanding of ethical responsibilities. I am not generally quick to defend big business, but I always find myself confused on why we think Big Pharma has a responsibility to find a cure. We don’t think that book publishers should take over the expense of public education – even though they profit from children learning to read. Nor do we expect the airline industry to fund research on grafting wings onto humans, even though they profit from our inability to fly without mechanical assistance.
Somewhat like the medical profession, Big Pharma has an obligation to provide beneficial products at a reasonable profit, and to do no harm. If we really thought that the industry was hiding a cure, then we would have every right to be outraged and to take every action to seek redress. But their obligation to their investors is to invest in profitable technologies and cures. To me, their generosity in donations to pure research speaks quite positively of their overall social consciousness.
With that as the basis of my thoughts, I agree that “at the end of the day, we are the ones who will drive the progress or research”. We can’t afford to be pointing fingers and expecting others to fund the research we are physically and emotionally in need of.
I’ve always assumed that legions of researchers are busy trying to solve the mystery of diabetes. On a visit with a nutritionist when I suggested that a cure might be found one day, she said, “My God — I’d be out of a job!” Meanwhile diabetes becomes more prevalent & new drugs aren’t always safe or effective. Big business & big money.
FDA and big pharma. are in bed together. They make it obvious when they take over the counter herbs and make them pharmaceuticals: Pyridoxamine4, quinine, yeast that they make lipitor with have been used for hundreds of years over the counter. The photonic crystal contact lens has been available in Europe for years but the FDA wont approve it what could there reasons be ?????????
This is an excellent article about a very emotionally powered topic. The scientist who is recognized as finding a cure for Diabetes Type I would probably win the Nobel Prize as well as raise the prestige of his company to an incredibly high level. In addition to the morality arguments, consider the benefits to the company that found the cure for Diabetes. They would get so much free high value publicity, which would lead to an easier path to market their new drugs as well as increase the sales of drugs already in existence. They would be head an shoulders above other companies in areas like trust and innovation. It doesn’t make sense to me for a drug company to sit on a cure and risk having another company reap all of these benefits.
My very last comment on this topic — because to me it it like people have very very short memories — money has caused people to do or not do a lot of things. Enron – GREED! The housing mortgage crises — a lot of companies and people involved – GREED! Bernie Madoff – GREED! A capitalist society will cause people to think about one thing for the most part money. The only reason companies give for cures is because it makes then look GOOD nothing else and it is a TAX write off. However that being said I fully expect a cure to come from a country with a national health care system — why because the burden of cost of diseases such as diabetes is burden of the government and not the individual. Therefore these countries have more of an incentive to find cures for these types of health challenges. Google the word Stem Cell Educator and see what I mean
To quote John from above;
“I don’t believe there’s a consipiracy against a cure, only a business model that stands in the way, as well as government regulation/restrictions.”
THAT IS THE CONSPIRACY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! The government regulations/restrictions is the PROXY that PREVENTS A CURE! What a perfect EXCUSE for pharma and others to point to for their hardship in not bringing a cure to market. Potential cures run out of money before reaching the final phase.
A ponzi scheme that makes WALL STREET look like Romper Room. Yet I donate money every year for a cause and walk miles and miles and raise my paddle high at auctions to this day. I pray everyday I’m wrong but if I’m right then may those few Manchurians that are responsible for this CIRCUS burn in hell.
It’s very good that you reacted to my and probably many other emails and looked into this. Thanks!
But don’t fall in the usual journalist sensationalism in the headlines. It’s not about conspiracy, of course. The question is does the incentive exist for companies to find a cure. Does capitalism, ie. maximizing recurring revenues, hold back real progress in the direction of a cure. Why would a company look for a one time cure? The government could make a reward, it would save a lot of health costs. You can’t force companies to find a cure, but you can lure good researchers to work for a bigger cause and money that what they get to work on finding treatments.
It’s good that there are independent organizations to search for a cure.
Great article!!! Companies also fund researchers looking for a cure which is often overlooked. I found out the other day that Novo Nordisk is second only to Americas Government in funding a possible cure.
Everyone needs to realize that science looks at risk vs benefit. Insulin came to market quickly because the benefit was type 1′s no longer were dying. Now that we have this, researchers need to make sure what every potential cure, does not cause another issue that is more deadly (cancer with stem cells could be a good example).
Great post and its fantastic to see someone finally writing from a balanced perspective
The only reason most companies give for cures or causes is because it makes then look GOOD nothing else and it is a TAX write off. However that being said I fully expect a cure to come from a country with a national health care system
I don’t believe there is a conspiracy, and the reason I don’t believe it is because I don’t allow myself to believe it. I fully recognize the possibility exists, but to learn that possibility is a reality would be just devastating to me, and I can’t allow myself to be devastated on a mere theory. I can understand the pharma industry not funding a goal which would damage its bottom-line, just as I understand the tobacco industry’s reluctance to promote anti-smoking measures. However, putting forth a real effort to build obstacles to supress the improvement of one’s health would completely ruin my faith in humanity.
This post really shows how blogs and reporting are NOT one in the same. A good reporter (admittedly few and far between these days) would not go out and literally try to track down a “conspiracy” but would instead ask, “What are the factors at work that would make people think there could be a conspiracy?”.
Do I think that drug companies are actively working to HIDE or PREVENT a cure to diabetes? No but do I think that government and neutral funding for independent research is decreasing and researchers are becoming more reliant on private funding? YES. Do I think that drug companies are providing more of that private funding? YES. Do I think that drug companies have any reason to provide funding to researchers looking for a cure? NO.
It would have been nice if this post had dug a little deeper.
Amanda,
Actually, that’s exactly what I did do in this article and in my interviews with all of my experts. Obviously there wouldn’t be anyone who would admit to a conspiracy – that’s ludicrous. What I did do was ask Dr. Ricordi, Kelly Close, and others was “What would you say to people who think there is a conspiracy?”
That was the premise of the article and that’s what I reported.
We need to be careful when we try and draw relationships for funding between an auto-immune disease spread by bodily fluid/contact and one that may or may not be genetically inherited and not spread by bodily fluid/contact. AIDS has the capability to become a global pandemic if not controlled or eradicated. That said, it also proves how incredibly difficult it is to conquor an autoimmune disease. And, AIDS has burried Diabetes when it comes to funding. I think I read somewhere the money the US donates (upwards of $2 billion ANNUALLY) to AIDS research and education is mindboggling.
The JDRF likes to extoll in their marketing all these walks are for a ‘Cure’ but they actually contribute very little to ‘Cure’ research, instead they are funding prevention and technology but if they used that in their banners they wouldn’t get as much from people. Good luck believeing your donations are for a cure; very little actually is.
Cancer research has received billions and yet there is still no cure, just earlier diagnosis which impacts survival rates. So, they look like they are doing better and the drugs might have changed but chemo and radiation still seem to be the norm.
In the end, is it really about money, regulations, or can we accept the fact that the technology, brain power, and resources just might not be there for a cure for any auto-immune disease? If that is true, then let’s be real and say we are decades, if not, generations away from anything truly transforming in how Diabetes is managed. We are ‘close to a cure’ is a marketing tool to bring in more donor monies…
I am not trying to set off a war here but I believe the incomplete and I might add incomplete understanding how the body works/fails under type 2 diabetes. For type 2 we have the following issues:
a) super increase in foods, availability and the ability to over load the hunter gatherer digestion system that was optimized for survival not protecting the body in a period of rich 24/7 foods coupled with all the labour saving tools of cars, computers, couch potato entertainment. We no longer work on the pharoahs tombs and rock projects that guarantee the buring of energy on a larger scale.
b) this is a multi-organ fracas of pancreas, liver, thyroid, intestines and gut. Searching for single – unified theory – single shot answers while most desireable and admirable will not solve the type 2 diabetes fracas
c) while valid to use helpful research data from type 1 diabetes that does not answer the problem fully and clouds/limits thinking on type 2. Everything is driven through the lens of Type 1 diabetes and limits the thinking.
d) lack of understanding of insulin resistance, glucose saturation of the skeletal muscles/fat cells temporary glucose stores. One cannot keep stuffing glucose at the body and not overfill these stores. The body is NOT and infinite motion/glucose absorption machine that simply load more insulin and actos!
e) Type 1 represents 10 % of the overall problem while type 2 represents 80%. How is present days funding for research spent on this?
f) lack of real time – 3 day portable 24/7 anaylsis packages that could pick up key blood stream variables/hormones and provide a detailed picture of body operation over a multi-day period. Single shot instant in time lab tests cannot get you there.
g) lack of complex detailed data leads to a bunch of conflicting theories and incomplete thinking serving no one properly.
The masssive growth on type 2 numbers is saying something else and we are not really making good progress against this afliction.
Type 1 Diabetes gets only a fraction of the funding that Type 2 gets! Where are you getting your facts from?
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[...] of the limitations imposed by those not-yet-approved research parameters (see last week’s “conspiracy” post for more on that). Additionally, the money has helped buy microscopes and cameras for labs, and [...]
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We seem to be forgetting that a “cure” for diabetes type one is a VERY DIFFICULT thing to accomplish. Even the research that has recently fueled this conspiracy theory does not propose a true cure, only a chronic treatment that is much easier to live with than the current chronic treatment. I am sure that research scientists are quite flattered that you all think they can cure anything they want to if only given enough money, but unfortunately, that is not true.
Most of the things that have cures are infectious in nature or limited to a part of the body that can be cut off. It is much more within our reach to develop a drug that can kill a foreign organism that has invaded our bodies such as a bacteria. Developing drugs that can change the way our own body’s cells treat each other is a much more difficult and dangerous task.
Big pharma created the monster FDA by using their lobbyist to put in rules that make development of a cure next to impossible. Pharma are one of the largest lobbies in the U.S. Why else would that spend billions to lobby and not work toward a cure. To make rules so there is not competition and a cure is delayed for many many years. And why are they spending so much on Type 1 and not Type 2. There is many many more Type 2 than Type 1. The blame game is why . They can’t find a cure so they blame the patient for not doing things. If they could speed up the metabolism and control stress – but they can’t seem to do anything except spend money and blue sky things. There will never be a cure because no one thinks Type 2 diabetes is more than a lifestyle disease.
There is no conspiracy. We just don’t know enough about ourselves. They just recently discovered how the insulin/glucose/cell process truely works. Given that fact, how could there be a cure?
Glen- I for one am very happy that T1 gets more funding than T2 (if that’s actually the case as I don’t know that myself). I have T1 through no actions I took or anything I contributed to have it. On the other hand that just can not be said for the vast amount if folks with T2. Without insulin injections I would die however those with T2 (not all but most) only need to cut back their McDonald’s consumption or get off their rears allowing their heart to pump at a rate higher than what theur restung rate while watching Top Chef.
I have said it for years, if my Dr told me what I needed to do to get rid if my disease there would be no hesttation. I’d stand in my head mumbling rain chants with a ripe pear in one hand and a one eyed owl in the other if it meant no more beetus.
I’m thrilled that Dr. Faustman is $17 million into the $24 million needed for Phase II Clinical Trials! It’s a shame that JDRF has not donated anything to the Faustman Labs!
There is no conspiracy. We just don’t know enough about ourselves. They just recently discovered how the insulin/glucose/cell process truely works. Given that fact, how could there be a cure?
The conspiracy works , that the only thing you verify here
Either you read it wrong or you don’t read English. I{ said ” There will never be a cure because no one thinks Type 2 diabetes is more than a lifestyle disease.” That is what I was saying – it is
NOT a lifestyle disease and they spend most of the money on type 1 – I don’t care what type you are – the money should be distributed EQUALLY -it is people like you that spread lies.
I have been a type 2 for over 30 years and the still do not know very much about the cause. There have been hundreds of trillions spent on all types and they are only in infancy is a cure – always a new treatment – no new treatments are being found. If there is not a conspiracy where has the money gone. The way to find where the hold up is Follow The Money |-why does it cost so little for drugs everywhere but the U.S. Equalize the money formula and let us have cheap drugs and get rid of the hold on bio drugs from being generic.. It is still a conspiracy. ZIt is for you to prove it is not. Everything points to Big Pharma.
Perhaps your knowledge on our health care system in the US is not that vast. There are more reasons to clear your conspiracy than I care to list but again, conspiracy is not one of them. Well here are just a few…
How about the absurd amounts Dr’s/Health Care Professionals have to spend in insurance thanks to the mind numbing amounts of frivolous lawsuits that get filed by ambulance chasing Attorneys?
Yes, new drugs do cost lots and lots of money. The above has something to do with it but instead of the suits being waged against individual people they are being thrust into corporations. Older drugs like Amoxocillin and Pre-Natal Vitamins can be had for FREE at certain pharmacies but again these medicines are much older and vastly more simple and also were created in a time where a company didnt have to set aside $1,000,000,000 in order to take a pill from infancy to its final destination which is our body.
You can tank our legal system for that last one.
And yet one more time Glenis, why do you so long for a pill or medication to magically remove the T2D from your body? IT IS NOT NEEDED! Better meal planning/food choices, physical exercise, and the simple use of restraint pertaining to putting things/doing things in your/to your body that simply arent healthy.
That is the cure, not a pill. There is no easy way out of this. Dong unhealthy things to a body for years and years and years takes much more to erase than to avoid, unfortunately, for so many.
that is not the cue as IO do all of that bsmith – I don’t know where you get your information. I have been living it for 30+ years. Nothing has worked for me including diet and exercise. You are judging me without knowing anything about me, thus I will do the same. You are definitely the idiot on this board. You are one of the people that like to blame when they really don’t have a clue about something. Get a clue – stop blaming and start researching – I volunteer.
Glenis- From your last two posts I hardly think you should be worrying about my comprehension of the English language. For about 2 seconds I questioned myself as it was late that night when I was edifying myself (your comments excluded) but then I re-read your post.
I’m going to quote you here.
“And why are they spending so much on Type 1 and not Type 2. There is many many more Type 2 than Type 1″
Put quite simply, type 2 Diabetes by and large in the vast majority IS a lifestyle disease. How could it be anything but when every season on the Biggest looser all the contestants that become active, eat healthy and therefore loose weight and all of a sudden do not have to take their Avandia or Metformin and are given a clean bill of health with T2D removed from their stat sheets?
I do not nor pretend to know you. We both suffer from diseases that IMO very unfortunately contain the same word after the type we are afflicted with, which is Diabetes.
Either you are ignorant on the disease you have lived with for 30 years, refuse to accept the truth or maybe you are one of the very few (or perhaps you are simply advanced in age and even have a BMI within acceptable/healthy ranges and your Pancreas just cannot produce high enough levels of Insulin to keep your BG below Diabetic levels) folks that do have T2D and arent obese, live a sessile lifestyle, eat poorly or have other health issues causing the T2D to be present. If the latter is the case than I am very sympathetic for you and I wish you the best but if not then you and only you are to blame for the Diabetes you have and will get no sympathy from me.
I struggle with the word conspiracy. I can see where clearly there is a confluence /collecting of issues from, lack of knowledge, big money and lobbiests; big Pharma trying to solve problem and make money, FDA and its actions and safety mandates, the legal industry trying to protect Doctors and medical industry against legal losses and lawsuits and see only approved cures being used, new research and possible changes to cures clearly seem stalled and even if “people and organizations are not directly working with each other group or sub groups, progress does seem definitely stalled and grinding along terribly slowly.
Look how long and slow it took to get Metformin released in America in the late 1990′s ( I believe) and in fact the success that drug has had and yet still not fully and properly understood to its workings and effects but clearly is doing good.
In the airline industry it is stated that no one major fault really takes a modern airplane out of the sky and usually requires a number of random failures and misfires that occur at the same time .that result in the major crash.
In the diabetes industry, there seems to be a sufficient number of actors all involvced to ensure research and progress do get stalled out. even if that group are not actively working with each other to achieve that result..
So should we say that this is a conspiracy of events but not really a active conspiracy of human hands and duplicity.
That said though i agree and would say that for Diabetes numbers and Type 2 diabetes; the present numbers, increases in numbers and no real progress getting that under control do seem a major unacceptable tragedy.
I looked over Glenis’s comments and I feel this discussion is just like type 2 diabetes issues. Complex, varied and all over the map.
Life style arguments while a quicktrip to the gate are frankly unhelpful and miss serious points
As a 30 years plus as type 2 and finally having to clean up he mess; what I had to do were as follows:
a) use metformin to cut excess liver glucose release. That is not a life style issue but a medical missfire issue.
b) adjust diet and exercise to get body back in an energy balance situation whereby burn and glucose generation more closely balance out and do not leave excess glucose generation that only serves to saturate the temporary storage sites of glucose in the skeletal muscles and fat cells.
This is not a life style issue but a energy balance issue that in fact requires one to adjust ones life style to bring energy balance matter back in balance.
In my mind, this issue is caused by the 2 million year old hunter gatherer gene digestion/gene set that was optimized many moons ago to prevent said individual from starving out and surviving poor intermittent food supplies that today are now 24/7 availability of refined foods, grains, rices etc that have all been beefed up by modern science since second world war to avert starvation of increasing world populations. The hunter gatherer body has not been modfird to keep up with food of modern science.
Throw in all the couch potato tools, skills, entertainment tools, labour saving appliances that have dropped energy burn seriously and we have real mess on our hands.
Nothing in the present hunter gatherer.gene digestion system is there to throw away/bypass excees energy being dumped into said body by modern foodstuffs available 24/7 and the result is exploding type 2 diabetes numbers..
That old system simply is very efficient and grabs every possible glucose molecule that can be generated from eaten food and throws it at the blood system.
Once body saturated, the dam glucose backs up and rots out the system. SOme folks have stronger/better genes to work the problem – survive it or they are working physically harder and on a short rations feed bag.
I protest the idea of simply throwing the problem against the old saw – its your fault and a life style problem. Latest thinking is suggesting that the islet cells do not die but fall back to some pre-islet cell that does not produce much insulin due to excess stress and glucose overload.. It is possible to coax these islet cells back to usefull production.
Unfortunately, since the Hunter Gathere gene/digestion system has no requlation control built in for excess 24/7 food supply with low energy burn, so the Human must do that control by himself – hence the three items in this mess
are medical issues – 33%, diet – 33 % and sufficient physical exercise – 33%.
All other arguments end up wasting time solving nothing.
@BSmith -I was not over weight when I was diagnosed with diabetes – we can agree to disagree that type 2 is not a lifestyle disease. I have lived it. The treatment has changed many many times. I am classified as ver resistant. Weight is a risk factor but not a cause. Some over weight people have type 2 and some do not – the same applies – type 2 are sometime over weight and sometime they are not. This misconception hurts us both emotionally and physically. It is not my fault that I have this horrid disease. I am just tired of hearing that is a lifestyle disease – it is not – in some cases it is but not always – type 2 causes cravings for carbs that is as bad as drugs so there are many factors – maybe they do need to be classified as different diseases and funded accordingly. I would like to see the information that say weight causes diabetes – that is very wrong – I am not going to get into a pissing argument – good luck with your disease – btw I hope some gameshow is not how you come to ideas – ADA and the top researchers are changing their tune and now saying risk factor – they do not know the cause
We certainly have reason to be suspect. Take Merck with the purchase of Smart Insulin. It’s been over two years since that acquisition and there has been no update on human trials. It was noted that Smartcells was ready for human trials back in 2010. Another example goes even further back when Sanofi Aventis bought the rights to CureDM’s Pancreate back in early 09.
I think part of the obstacle may come from the fact that one of the areas of research into diabetes cure is the use of stem cells. For many people, stem cells = abortion, and the religious right is a very, very powerful political force to be reckoned with.
Some of the things that needs fixed in research, medicine and perception of disease
1. Perception that all diseases can be put under one hat, There should be three different diseases that are currently defined under Diabetes – Gestation. type 1, type 2.
2 Perception that people with diabetes are just fat.
3. Perception that everyone reactions the same with each medicine and if your numbers are bad,you did not do what you were told
4. Diabetes can be fixed by losing weight, following a strict diet and taking your meds.
5 Trails are not done with the average working individual, They want you to be at the hospital 4 of 5 hours – 2 or 3 tines a week.
I can list on and on.
The problem is blaming the patient when you have no answers
I keep having people say that Metformin is the answer I cant take it, Simple – it has to be takr\en out as a treatment for me.
aAs suggested, I am not looking for the magic pill. A vaccine or organ transplant that would correct what is broken. All I hear is idiots that believe weight causes diabetes – that is ridiculously ignorant. That include all of the overeducated idiots. Education does not make you smart – I think lots of things are being left out for example, how many people are used when determining that weight is an issue. I would guess less than 1/100th of the total. That says nothing. I tried to volunteer for studies but I was never chosen. It seems they need someone available during the day. At the time I was working 8-5. I have tried recently but nothing is close anymore. The statistics are skewed.
Metformin is ONE tool in a suite of tools that can be used to work a multi-organ, multi hormone complex organic chemical plant.
Metformin so far seems to shut off excess liver glucose generation and failure of liver to signal properly during fasting. If that is your key problem, metformin can be very helpful.
It is not the sole whole unified field theory answer.
If pancreas is aging and its meal bolus and the basil insulin releases are down, one may need insulin boosts.
One may need thyroid levothryroxin increase to up the clock a little.
In this person’s mind we are attacking the problem totally wrong.
It’s like the question, can cinamin cure my diabetes? All depends what problem is and how bad!
Current mentality is like vampire hunters searching for the silver bullit/cross and garlic ring to cure the world.
i guess you did not read – I CANNOT TAKE METFORMIN – I end up with extreme diarrhea – I tried to maintain it for months and ended up in the hospital due to dehydration – and yes I hydrated. – I guess I am done as all I find here is people that have no clue about what they are talking about even with the extreme education – you can have 40 doctors degrees and not see the problem- you are always looking at symptoms and never isolate the true issue. You need to LISTEN TO TYPE 2′s and walk it their shoes before making incorrect statements. You really do not know how hard we try and the ones that are overweight – maybe just maybe they have tried to lose weight and cannot – out of control diabetes that has swings from good to bad make hunger extreme – I feel it is like a drug. It causes the person to go in a circle – feeding the problem — just like a revolving credit card. Someone needs to isolate other issues and not just blame weight as that is the wrong answer. I was at an ideal weight passing flight physicals when diagnosed. I have gained because the medications only make the swings worse and the meds and methods have changed. I was told in the beginning to eat a lot of carbs. No one has gotten a handle on any of this because they are only looking at the tests and the tests are WRONG or SKEWED – LISTEN TO THE PATIENT if you want a real direction – doctors don;t give the time of day – they just want you meter – read it and say you are not obeying their orders – Maybe their orders are just WRONG. – don’t waste you time revolving as I am done with the idiots on this blog – have a nice life.
By the way – I am taking R500 3 times a day – 17 units – I am taking Lantus at night 30 units – I am on Levothroxin, Zeria, Losen, Bisoprolol, Gabapentin, Cymbalta, Buproprine, Aspirin, Pain meds from time to time. I have been diagnosed with Fibromylgia, diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy, Sleep ;Apnea, Cronic Back Pain (fusion, decompression, metal cage around L3, L4, L5 Asthma, Severe Allergies ( on 6th year of shots), heart disease, Cognizant issues, etc. I am a 61 year old male that spent his entire life under stress – Computer Programmer Analyst (other titles) I was fluent in over 15 languages. I was in the military and exposed to many many chemicals. WEIGHT IS NOT THE ISSUE – CoMorbid is the issue and MD’s and researchers can’t handle it. THey need a single tract – one item at a time – I wish my job had been that simple -
glen nelson i hope read this there is a treatment called insulin infusion therapy, hapatic therapy,please look it up.
http://diabetes.net/
[...] Correspondent Allison (Blass) Nimlos, who lives with diabetes and is a journalist working for Diabetes Mine, a diabetes advocacy blog, posed an interesting question to blog followers. She asked them, “What would you say to people who think there is a conspiracy?” She was speaking to several medical experts in the field of diabetes who should know the answer. Now, she knew these experts would never admit to such a thing, “– that’s ludicrous,” she said, but the discussion that followed provides an excellent picture of how people feel about our healthcare industry. I provide the link to the referenced posting on Diabetes Mine here with a recommendation that you read the comments section at the end. Also, if you have a particular interest in diabetes, Diabetes Mine is an excellent resource. Here’s the link: Is There a Conspiracy Preventing a Diabetes Cure? : DiabetesMine: the all things diabetes blog. [...]
I am a diabetic and I would gladly pay the cost of treatment for the rest of my days if I could be cured today. If financial issues are the motivation for inaction of finding a cure, I think Pharma is very short sited.
There is no doubt that a cure is not in the best interest of pharmaceutical companies, all you need to do is reading the pharmaceutical companies mission statement.
So here is a proposal why don’t we try creating a diabetics foundation dedicated to find a cure funded by the diabetics, managed and directed by diabetics.
After all it is in our own interest to find the cure for this decease, why are we hopping to get help from people who has little or no gain finding such a cure.