Before a drug is licensed for use in this country very high standards have to be met - new drug often trialled for years before being licensed. A friend with a progressive condition is part of a double blind trial where half the participants are given the drug being tested and the other half a placebo. This test is on-going for 12 months then the results will be evaluated. Once licensed and approved by N.I.C.E. a drug can be used for any medical condition - drugs are not licensed for specific conditions. On the grounds of cost N.I.C.E. may refuse to allow the prescription of a drug. There is a new drug available for people with Cystic Fibrosis - possibly a drug that could be tried/offered to someone with Covid 19. I think this drug is available in Scotland but not in the rest of the U.K. because of the cost. (In the 50's and 60's Thalidomide was an extremely effective drug to treat depression/anxiety and sickness in pregnant women - disastrous consequences.) Whilst work will continue on developing a vaccine I think there will be research on the usefulness of 'existing' drugs in treating Covid 19 - can't see a safe vaccine being developed in the next 18 months.
On the other hand new 'flu vaccines are developed each year to tackle the latest strains likely to occur in the coming winter.
yes, thalidomide research is still continuing but the only people who can do this research are women past child-bearing age and men who are not planning on becoming fathers.
strange things vaccines, i used to have to have a flu jab in the army due to the aviation side of my job and was always ok with them, now in my 60's and heart attack victim its advised that i started having them again, the amount of people that warned me against it was unreal because of the side effects yet i've had them over the last 4 years and again with no ill effects at all
Totally random, but as a teenager [quite some time ago] - I used to get hey fever something chronic, I was basically allergic to summer. I used to have what, to me, was a miracle cure jab. A hey fever jab that had to injected into your arse for some reason - at least that's what the nurse used to tell me. It was miraculous and stopped all the symptoms stone dead. Then one year they just stopped it completely. When I asked why I got told "some people react badly to it" and that was that, I often wonder what on earth the reaction was that pulled that off the market cos it was bloody brilliant.
Why no fathers. I thought the problem with it was it affected the embryo growing in the womb. I’d never heard it affected sperm
Thalidomide is used to treat bone marrow cancer. Women very strongly advised not to become pregnant if on the drug and men advised not to father a child if on the drug. I suppose the concern is that if by chance some of the drug thalidomide gets into the system of some of the men working with thalidomide and they went on to father a child it could affect the developing embryo - as there can be no 100% guarantee that this couldn't happen then there has to be every caution. It's not an unusual situation. (There are a number of powerful drugs becoming available to treat some intractable conditions and the advice is that women shouldn't become pregnant if on these drugs and neither should men father a child if they're on the drug.)
The research isn't the biggest problem, it's the testing. It takes so long because they need to determine if there are any long term side-effects. That's something that can only be done long term, by definition.
this may seem a inhuman to some.... but testing on severe criminals should be considered... death row criminals for instance.
That’s not the problem though. No matter who you test on, you still have to wait 12 months to see what the effects are 12 months after administering the vaccine.
Our lass was on a trial drug for MS...had to come off it as she ended up with septic shock due to pneumonia which the doctors attributed to the drug (an immune system suppressant....glad she's off it now). That trial , from her starting on it , was for 5 years. She was on ,I think, stage 3....but I know it was running for at least 3 years before she went on it.
Flu vaccines are modified each year with the more serious strains and those more likely to be prevalent in that winter. So you are vaccinated against Spanish flu every year, and now Swine flu, along with various other strains.
It'll be a first if they can come up with a vaccine for something that is a relative to the common cold. I reckon mass testing and on-demand instant result testing will be the way out of this.
