Will there ever be a cure for AIDS?....?

Question

and if so,how much money would the major drug companies and the FDA be looking to lose if there was a cure...?

Answer 1

I really don't think that we will see it in our lifetime, I believe it is just like Cancer, the 2 of them are such a money maker. Although the cocktail drug does do wonders.

Answer 2

Part of the problem is in the ever-mutating nature of HIV. It's hard to eradicate something that is always changing itself.

Stockholders of pharmaceutical companies do not let them pursue pipeline drugs that stand to lose a lot of money - that's just financial reality, I'm afraid. It can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and fully test any prescription drug before one dime of sales is seen.

I'm not trying to be completely dispassionate - a cure would be a tremendous boon for the entire world. I support it enttirely. But until the developer can show a cost/benefit positive result, and definitively prove the science behind it working, a cure is not going to happen.

Right now we don't have a "cure" for cancer, diabetes, MS, cerebral palsy, and many other diseases that have been around for much longer. We do, however, have some treatments that have sent patients with some of these diseases into remission, sometimes for the rest of their lives. There is no guarantee, even with "remission," that the disease will not return.

It's a great question, but not one that I see any quick resolution to. No company, that I am aware of, has anything even CLOSE in the pipeline - and I watch for this news like a hawk, being an insider.

And as someone above noted, the FDA is a non-profit (and non-loss) agency, not a company.

Answer 3

Predictions put a cure in about 15 years time, there are people working on it and they are getting closer. It's because it;s so invasive of the human body, especially the immune system that it's a nightmare finding something effective that can cure it without destroying all you're body's cells to get to it. Plus it's a robust and changing virus, much like the common cold, colds mutate rapidly and there are different strains all the time.

Currently the only treatment involves preventing advancement of the illness and lessening the effects, and it's a cocktail of drugs that work in concert to do this, but the virus itself remains the same.

If a cure was developed there would be a huge push to make it at a reduced cost because of the epidemic and the devastation it is wrecking. At present drug cmpanies are making a lot of money on the coktail but the Third World is not reaching many of the drugs. They will not sell or lower the price because of many reasons that they give. By keeping the price "up" they say, they make sure those that get it can use it. The cocktail requires handfuls of pills to be taken at exact intervals every day. Many people in the Third World do not own watches. These arguments evaporate with a cure, which would be an injection with prehaps a follow up. The amount of global push for a free or low cost cure would be immeasurable.

Answer 4

Well, I think it's safe to say that if the drug companies don't want us to have a cure, I doubt that we will. Aids is a big money making machine. Don't even get me started on the FDA. Man, what a farce! The way things are going right now, it looks like they will have a cure for Ebola before the have a cure for aids.

Answer 5

I sometimes wonder with all of the amazing advances in science that we've been making why it has been impossible to find a deifnite cure for AIDS.
It makes me tilt my head a bit thinking how much money companies would lose if there was a cure... and if they'd be willing to sacrifice that.
Not everyone is butterflies and daisies... some people are greedy enough to do something that low and don't think otherwise.

Answer 6

Since the 'cure' would probably be a vaccine and not an actual cure, the drug companies will probably make a fortune. The FDA is not a for-profit organization. Their livelyhood does not rely on profits from drug sales.

Answer 7

Good question. If you look at any other disease, cancer for instance and take out the billion dollar industry involved in the treatment of cancer, its an easy leap to figure out why there have been no cures. Substitute MS, MD, Parkinson's, Diabetes etc, and you get some unsettling thoughts about business and profit.

After having been in the insurance business for many years, I have to wonder. You want to know why we don't have a universal health plan in this country, there ya go.

Answer 8

I would hope that there is and think that one does exist. Like I am sure that there is a cure for cancer.

But like you pointed out, look at all of the money that the drug companies, hospitals and doctors stand to lose. Hundreds of billions a year.

Answer 9

I think your on the right track. I honestly believe there is already a cure, and a lot of companies are afraid to put it out because of the chance to lose money. I mean they would lose so much. I'm very sadden of the thought, but a lot of people would actually rather someone die so long a s they made money.

Answer 10

i don't think there will ever be a cure for aids. it destroys the very blood cells that tell you you have an infection, therefore the chances of a vaccine are nil. I think that aids is with us to stay and the only way to defeat it is to change our morality and go back to the way it used to be, abstinence til marriage and fidelity within the marriage.In that case those that have it will die off and the disease will be defeated. I think it is immoral and irresponsible to have sex if you have aids.

Answer 11

Sure, but only once the cost of creating and distributing a cure will outweigh the money brought in by expensive therapies to simply keep a person alive.