Just asking: If you had some chimerical target molecule in mind that you thought was worth trying to treat yourself with, how much would it cost to have it synthesized somewhere?
I am possibly not following your comment - I have no idea how much it would cost to have it synthesized. I would guess a pretty binary distribution between “surprisingly cheap” and “staggeringly expensive.”
Are you saying the point of the post is that he is soliciting evidence of unapproved compounds that the FDA is sitting on that might be useful to treat his condition, and if he can find out about them, he’ll have them synthesized? That’s pretty brilliant if so. If that was the message though, it completely eluded me.
I mean, I'm not saying he's doing that. But that's certainly what I would do. I made some inquiries at one point when I was living in eastern europe, through an American acquaintance who worked for a US drug company that sourced materials from labs there, about what exactly would be involved in taking a patent paper and having one of their subcontractors turn it into a drug. I got some interesting information that made it seem plausibly within reach for someone with a high 7-figure net worth (my plan was to get a price and crowd-source the cost from a network of people suffering from the same thing), but I didn't end up pursuing it. The molecule in question was fairly large and difficult to synthesize and purify, though.
Yeah, that’s a pretty genius idea. I’d be totally supportive of anyone who wanted to pursue something like that. I just don’t think that seeking treatment like that overlaps very much with the FDA’s role and mandate.
Not to say FDA doesn’t need to be reformed; it probably does. But I don’t think mindless sclerosis is what’s taking time to evaluate new drugs.
Okay, this is me thinking with my "I'm going to die, therefore money and propriety are no object" cap: Who gives a fuck what one agency chooses to bless or not bless, if you're going to die? Go where you can get treatment, even if you have to go into debt to do it. This is just one country, one agency. The information itself is available. If you're staying in American and railing against the FDA, while dying, you're not making the best use of your time.
We should proceed from the basic assumption that - with enough money - you can get any drug you want synthesized and professionally administered. Then, maybe, we should question why the FDA is slow to release them. It's a big world, and nothing is stopping anyone from experimenting on themselves, if they have the wherewithal to print what they want to inject.
I'm not saying this guy has the wherewithal. But it's not the FDA that's the problem as much as the 101 fake miracle cures cooked up by seductive pseudo-scientists that the FDA is constantly doing yeoman's service to dispel. Rather than rail against regulation, go somewhere unregulated. That's the beauty of living in a big, messed up world.
