mrPandabot35 t1_j2ce5sj wrote on December 31, 2022 at 5:06 AM

The ethics of harvesting the cells has been a pretty big issue. Someone started saying they come from aborted babies and that dude went with it. Stem cells could literally be harvested from the placenta and umbilical, some not so good cells from adults too. Here’s another thing: healthy people is not good for business in the pharmaceutical world. If you use something that’s too effective you won’t need to buy more of the less effective stuff.

Moskau50 t1_j2cgtu6 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 5:31 AM

>healthy people is not good for business in the pharmaceutical world. If you use something that’s too effective you won’t need to buy more of the less effective stuff.

Speaking cynically, "healthy" people don't exist. The longer someone lives the more illnesses and medical issues they will have. A long-lived person is a long-term patient; being the person/company to cure a degenerative/"incurable" disease is a huge windfall in both money (at that point, you can name your price) and prestige. No company would sit on that information.

Speaking more rationally, it's not like curing these diseases would be a simple measure anyway. Even treating "normal" diseases is a massive effort. The amount of raw effort, resources, money, and capital investment needed to produce normal treatments isn't something to be casually dismissed. Pharma companies would be happy to "retire" a medication in exchange for a huge windfall payment from the cures in order to make room for other medications/processes that are in the pipeline.

mrPandabot35 t1_j2chwar wrote on December 31, 2022 at 5:42 AM

Of course, people will eventually become I’ll with something, but what I’m thinking is that things like Crohn’s or some kind of organ/nerve damage could be better handled potentially decreasing the number of hospital visits, medication needs, and the domino effect that follows. Time lost from those visits decreasing quality of life. Meds taking their toll on the liver. Just because we can’t “fix” everything, we should do more than treat symptoms.

Moskau50 t1_j2cj5b8 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 5:54 AM

If you have an idea for how to cure those diseases, I'm sure there are plenty of companies that would love to hear it.

Just saying "we should focus on this" isn't useful; current production capacity is already pretty fully utilized for current standard-of-care treatments or clinical next-generation treatments. If a cure is found, then sure, there are companies that would be willing to sideline some of their current treatments in order to make this cure. But the data supporting it needs to be good, because otherwise, you're depriving other people of their current treatments.

alexja21 t1_j2cg6n5 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 5:25 AM

> Here’s another thing: healthy people is not good for business in the pharmaceutical world. If you use something that’s too effective you won’t need to buy more of the less effective stuff.

Yeah that's why my dentist tells me to keep drinking lots of soda and my optometrist recommends sitting really close to the computer screen in a dark room all day.

You nutter.

mrPandabot35 t1_j2cgm42 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 5:29 AM

You’re one of those people, huh? Completely ignore the context of the “conversation” to prove something that wasn’t brought up.

barbsam t1_j2czfc9 wrote on December 31, 2022 at 9:13 AM

the entire field is shifting from embryonic stem cells to induced stem cells that come from any tissue of a patient (liver, skin, you choose). feel free to google to know more. there's also alot of research going into the direction of reprogramming cells, which is the baby step towards what OP was mentioning. Still a long way to go.

also. stop with the healthy people bad pharma agenda. It's not a real thing. I understand where it comes from and there are certainly if not mostly capitalist pricks on the top of some pharma companies. Pharma is not one big conspiracy. If they all make money off sick people that never get healthy, well then just take 2 mins to think what happens if one of them finds a cure to a disease, they make a shitton of money while all the competitors therapies will be obsolete. Yes, pharma is about profitability, but thats not a pharma problem, its a system problem.

bankymoon420 t1_j2ctp8e wrote on December 31, 2022 at 7:57 AM

All very true, I believe the stem cells that are effective are harvested from your own body fat. Stem cells from other sources cause cancerous growths and are no good.