From the first moment
my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from
the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer
seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did
little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known
reason, I started this blog…
Every month, I’ll be
highlighting breast cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from
different websites, journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into
understandable English and share them with you. Today: http://www.bloomberg.com/topics/breast-cancer
I suppose I should have thought of this a long time ago, but
I didn’t. So I’m going to toss this out to you.
Cancer research, specifically the search for drugs to TREAT
breast cancer (as well as many other types) is a BUSINESS. The drug companies
are doing their work not for Humanitarian reasons (though I have no doubt that
some people in companies like Roche, Merck, Pfizer, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Co., AstraZeneca, Biogen, Sanofi, Clovis Oncology Inc., Baxter Healthcare, and Puma
Biotechnology Inc. are “in it” to help others) but to make a buck.
Cold, you say? Perhaps, but this quote might justify such an
assessment: “Puma Biotechnology Inc. fell the most in almost a year after
reporting results from a breast-cancer drug trial that disappointed investors.”
That monetary assessment of the lives lost, the hope spent,
and the effort by the families who “invested” the end of the life of their
loved one in the study doesn’t figure in this report.
Just that the investors in the company were...disappointed.
Which statement do you find colder, the one where I said
that “drug companies…are ‘in it’ to make a buck” or the one where a business magazine
reports that the “drug company…disappointed investors”?
Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the drug companies who
developed Taxotere (Sanofi), Adriamycin (Ben Venue Laboratories), Cytoxan (Baxter
Healthcare), Neulasta Amgen), and Anastrazole (AstraZeneca) – they saved the
life of the person I love and have loved more than anyone else on Earth. But
they save lives to make money – for their investors.
My point today? I don’t really have one, I guess. I’m just ruminating. I started off looking at breast cancer treatment breakthroughs for today from a different angle. I wanted to see if the business world had a different POV than the science or medical fields. The result was that I was confronted by the hard fact that NONE of these endeavors are pursued out of a driving sense of philanthropy. I knew that, surely. It just never hit me like it did today.
To end on a positive note, I’ll just briefly preview the research I just found with the title of the next Breast Cancer Research Right Now! post: COFFEE PROTECTS AGAINST BREAST CANCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeehaw!!!!!!! Look Out Caribou, here were come!
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150421084531.htm)
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