The pharmaceutical and meter companies are not hiding a cure. I've worked for various companies for eight years, and I never, never, never heard anyone in any company ever claim to have a cure for diabetes. Indeed, I've watched companies spend millions of dollars trying to find ways to prevent diabetes.

The problem is not the pharmaceutical companies but the big Not-for-Profits which have methodically misled the public with their pitches for money based on the logic that the cure is five years away. Yes, the pharmaceutical companies indeed make a profit from saving peoples' lives. You should read Dr. Michael Bliss's book about how people with diabetes died before insulin was discovered (The Discovery of Insulin). In addition, insulins (such as Lantus) have made it realistically possible for people with diabetes to have normal HbA1c levels, something that was unheard of when the test first became available about 1980. Also, any time you criticize the cost of strips, try to remember what it was like to play with your urine, and make it turn pretty colors (See the photos of the Clinitest tablets at Once upon a time.

Finally, in my opinion, there will never be a "cure" for diabetes. Maybe we'll someday find ways to prevent the disorders we call diabetes, but fixing type 1 diabetes will be dependent on fixing the underlying autoimmune problems, and fixing type 2 diabetes will depend on changing people's lifestyles — we gotta get away from unneeded snacks and video games and into exercise.

Stop and think it over — would you ever want to go back to no insulins, urine testing and early death? If not, why begrudge the money that it takes to bring these and many more innovations to the market.

wwq     

Return to DQ&A main page