• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The new treatment is a type of gene therapy given during 12 to 18 hours of delicate brain surgery.

    Treatment is likely to be very expensive. However, this is a moment of real hope in a disease that hits people in their prime and devastates families.

    Great news for the scions of billionaires, I guess.

    • FenderStratocaster@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You missed the mark by a mile on this article.

      Huntington’s disease successfully treated for first time

      Read. That. Again.

      It was a 18 hours of surgery. The advancement is to be celebrated, not whined about because it’s CURRENTLY expensive. People will be saved from decades of agony. You sound like one of those people that claims some secret cabal is hiding the cure for cancer so they can make money.

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I appreciate your positivity. This is a huge breakthrough and means that we’ll most likely continue to make this treatment better and more accessible!

        Thats not even mentioning how this treatment may help us figure out how to combat other diseases.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        It will be expensive forever. A similar therapy for SMA children (without surgery) costs US$2.1M. Novartis then gave away doses by lottery. for a few families, they got a dose, for everyone else, their child dies.

        How does Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan sleep at night? In a large mansion outside Boston.

        • WolfmanEightySix@piefed.social
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          2 days ago

          Is that the cost, or what people are charged? Like in the USA people are charged an insane figure for insulin, but the product can be made for something like £17.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Is that the cost, or what people are charged?

            The latter.

            The therapy isn’t materially cheap, but every point along the line is profiteered on top of the baseline cost.

      • obre@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Actually, you’ve missed the mark. It’s not whining about an advancement, it’s legitimate criticism of the US health industry. He’s just saying what we all know to be true which is that regardless of technological improvements, lifesaving care will continue to be ruinously expensive for those that are able to access it and gatekept from many others.

        If you have a problem with comments like these undermining celebration of scientific progress, then maybe you should think about the structural political issues that lead people to disillusionment and cynicism rather than labeling people as conspiracy theorists.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        The advancement is to be celebrated, not whined about

        It would be celebrated in a country that wasn’t clawing back access to health care at every turn

        • FenderStratocaster@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I know you are on Lemmy, but not every single comment has to be so dreary and political. Step outside and get some fresh air, brother.

          • ripcord@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            This is specifically the sub to escape the dooming. So many people just can’t help themselves.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        No they don’t. It’s not a electronic gadget. They will get off patent in 20 years (this is an orphan drug disease).

        • NKBTN@feddit.uk
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          2 days ago

          Because there’s many more treatments available now? Logically, every time we invent a new cure, we increase healthcare spending

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Logically, every time we invent a new cure, we increase healthcare spending

            That doesn’t logically follow at all.

            If costs are supposed to fall over time, the body of medical science should be getting cheaper while the increasingly boutique and obscure treatments make up a smaller portion of the overall pie.

            Instead, we drugs life insulin and adalimumab seeing skyrocketing prices decades after their development and broad adoption.

            • NKBTN@feddit.uk
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              2 days ago

              Why would costs fall over time? It’s not like energy is getting much cheaper. MRA scans cost a huge amount of energy, and more and more uses are found for them.

              There will always be a baseline for how much something costs, materially speaking. And so the more cures and techniques are invented, the more costs there will be.

    • barnaclebutt@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      There you go. Find that little nugget of negativity in something so positive. Bravo.

      New treatment for previously incurable disease? Nah, fuck that. Let’s make it about something else that I don’t like.

    • its_prolly_fine@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      It always starts that way. But good God any treatment for a disease the was a guaranteed death sentence is absolutely amazing.

    • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      It will cost over US$3M. BBC please stop quoting paid consultants to drug companies without revealing their conflicts.