What's Old Is New Again:
06/02/07
By Nurse Mark This
one is from the "how can we put a positive "spin" on something that we've been
pooh-poohing for so long" department...
Researchers at a recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in
Chicago are now touting the benefits of arsenic - long used in Traditional
Chinese Medicine - for the treatment of certain forms cancer.
It seems that the US based drug company Cephalon Inc
has received approval for it's drug Trisenox to be used in people with acute
promyelocytic leukemia. How long can it be before other "off-label" uses are
promoted? This drug was purchased by Cephalon in 2005 for a reported 70 million
dollars in cash and promises of up to $100 million more in future payments.
There is some Big Money involved! So, a
fairly natural substance, known and used for millennia by the Chinese but
considered "fringe medicine" - unacceptable by western allopathic "scientific"
(read: drug-based) standards - has now been patented and is being marketed by a
US drug company. Has the substance, arsenic, changed? Nope. What has changed is
the "ownership" of the substance. And now that profits are involved this
formerly feared substance is being spun into a lifesaving treatment for one of
mankind's most dread illnesses. This all
makes me wonder how long it will be before that other ancient treatment for
cancer, laetrile, is "discovered" and brought into the light of respectability
once again. You see, in the 1970's laetrile
compounds were being researched and said to be effective in the treatment of
cancer. Not just a little bit helpful, but really, really effective.
Unfortunately, major players in the Cancer Industry such as Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the FDA and it's handlers in Big Pharma have
been successful in villainizing this compound, making much of the fact that it
contains a form of cyanide. The mighty FDA has prosecuted this compound and
those who would use it mercilessly. Why
should this be so? Could it be that a substance that actually works could damage
the profitability of the Cancer Industry? After all, if a handful of apricot
seeds could accomplish that which obscenely expensive chemotherapy treatments
cannot this would be a major blow to the Pharmaceutical Giants...
So, I'm predicting that we'll not see any drug
company pursue research into laetrile, at least not publicly. It would be far
too embarrassing for them to discover good about this after so much effort has
gone into "proving" it to be bad. Curing
cancer is not in the cards - there is far too much money at stake.
We might see something like laetrile from Big Pharma,
but only if it can be patented, and only if it doesn't work much better than the
chemotherapies that they have now. That's my admittedly cynical opinion...
References and additional reading:
News
Release: Cephalon, Inc. Announces Acquisition of TRISENOX(R) from Cell
Therapeutics, Inc. 06/13/2005. Transaction Accelerates Cephalon's Entry into
Oncology Market and Builds Platform for its Growing Oncology Franchise.
RALPH MOSS'S SPEECH TO OTA
Vitamin B17 (Laetrile) Cancer Cure Cover up |
