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From: dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.motss
Subject: Re: Why AZT is so expensive
Message-ID: <4625@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 20 Sep 89 18:07:38 GMT
References: <11815@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <929@paperboy.OSF.ORG> <4620@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM> <11864@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Reply-To: dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 39

In article <11864@boulder.Colorado.EDU> pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier) writes:
>I think, at best, the efficacy of AZT is debatable.  It may
>prolong life, it may not.  The controlled studies to test it are not
>going to be done (who wants to be in the control group?)

The original studies of AZT's efficacy in patients with advanced AIDS
used control groups, as did the more recent studies which looked at
the effect of AZT on delaying the onset of ARC and AIDS in HIV+
asymptomatic subjects.  The studies were terminated early because
the trends were unmistakably clear.  I don't understand what feeds
your pessimism, which is certainly not in the medical mainstream
of opinion.

>What is in doubt is how effective preventing RT-mediated replication will
>be in preventing the devastating effects of the disease.  You should
>know this.  Its means of spreading once established is not understood,
>nor is its means of killing more cells than it appears to infect (perhaps
>fusing them, but it is not clear).  It need not use RT to do this.

No one could make a claim that anti-RT-therapy with AZT is the end-all
of AIDS therapy.  To use your cancer analogy, AZT right now is just a
palliative.  That it appears to prolong life is pretty much unarguable.
It does not cure or arrest the disease.  Still, if a drug can add several
years of useful life to someone with an otherwise incurable illness, it
is usually thought to be a good thing.  If we threw out all drugs used
in cancer chemotherapy which did not cure the disease but only served
to keep a person more comfortable, or alive for a few more months or
years, we'd have very little to work with (patients OR drugs.)

>As for me singing a different tune if I had the disease:  It is interesting
>that a couple of people have pointed that out.  Personally, I would not wish
>that on anyone in anger like that.

I would hope that my comment would not be taken as wishing AIDS on anyone.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu