[geeks] Drug prices (was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro)

[Shannon Hendrix]

On May 23, 2008, at 19:22 , wa2egp at att.net wrote:

> The problem is that today's method of applying antibiotics needs to  
> change.  An antibiotic given in pill form allows 90% of that  
> antibiotic to leave the body into the environment.  Now if a smaller  
> amount was applied directly to the infection, assuming it's  
> localized, then less would be released and the chance of resistance  
> developing in something "out there".  Some countries, antibiotics  
> are available over the counter and are massively misused.

Hot R&D topic.

The body knows how to "target" things like hormones and builder- 
proteins, sending them to specific areas of the body.

One holy grail is a drug-carrier than uses the same system to send a  
drug to a specific part of the body and have it stay there.

In college our nuclear and biochemistry professors told us that most  
drug doses are really dozens to thousands of times what is needed,  
because it goes over the whole body.

Targeting drug carriers could reduce drug amounts greatly, and of  
course that would also often greatly reduce side-effects and the  
development of resistance.

Of course, one professor also pointed out that targeting would also  
allow for some horrible overdoses to those targeted areas if not done  
properly.

Interesting idea anyway, and I wonder if we'll see it soon?

NOTE: some drugs do this naturally of course.

-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com