May 11 2007, 1:32 pm PT | Posted in: Drugs + Hair Cloning
Dr. Rassman,
What is you take on the idea of companies like Merck trying to suppress a “cloning cure” for balding, with all this huge amount of money being made on drugs like propecia?
Do you think that this might be preventing a cure for hairloss because in the end its all about the money.
Thanks
Your question is like a set up for a ridiculous Hollywood movie “conspiracy theory”. I hope that you asked this question in jest.
Merck, like all drug companies, are entitled to make money (a return on its investment) from its research in the drug development process and they can not possibly conspire to stop progress. The rewards for cloning hair and the riches that will be derived from finding that magical cure, will be reward enough for anyone cleaver enough to solve the cloning problem. Did you know that it costs about $800 million to take a drug from development to the market? It also takes about 15 years where the money is consumed on things like tests and trials. Without a profit, they would stop creating new miracle drugs for all of us that improve our lives.
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A business ideally behaves according to an economic principle called ‘rational self-interest.’ As you pointed out, the average drug costs $800 million to develop with an average payback period of 15 years. If a developing treatment jeopardizes the profitability of a patented product such as finasteride, Merck will see it not as a medical breakthrough for the good of all mankind - like a Doctor would - but as a competitive product threatening their market share. And it will respond to this competition like any business - by erecting what economists and businessmen call “barriers to entry.” Erecting these barriers may involve actions that could be interpreted as suppression. It isn’t a conspiracy. Its simply a commercial enterprise taking the profit motive to its rational conclusion. People who think that CEO’s and managing directors would never do such a thing are naieve. Contemporary legal and commercial history demonstrates time and again that corporations will go to seemingly immoral lengths to protect the market share of their products. Any claims such an organization makes to the contrary is simply Public Relations, a Machievellian sub-discipline of Marketing.
Merck may or may not attempt to suppress follicle cloning research. Unless Merck stands to gain a profit, it certainly has a motive to erect barriers. Such tactics are not always cloak-and-dagger. Insuring finasteride’s continued profitability may be as conspicuous as acquiring firms that are attempting to develop such a treatment (as an example). Merck has a motive. All it needs is an opportunity.
Hopefully Merck would not throw up a barrier and see that propecia could still be usefull in terms of ensuring that the “new hair” that couldn’t be previously grown is protected from DHT. I think a good many men would purchase that type of insurance policy for their new hair and thus may even increase Mercks market share from men who were previously bald that were never a customer to begin with. It would be nice to move forward with a cure already. imo.