Amazing! 15 year old revolutionises cancer detection test

[Platypus]

Amazing
15-year-old genius revolutionizes cancer detection with 3-cent test | RocketNews24

Nice to read a "good news" story for a change.

Although the one about the horny student was good too

[vetran]

lets hope he patented it or at least kept the rights.

It sounds like the solution he created will work for many other tests.

[RedSauce]

lets hope he patented it or at least kept the rights.

It sounds like the solution he created will work for many other tests.

but the drug companeis will try and stop it because they will lose millions from the expensive tests they create.

[NotAllThere]

but the drug companeis will try and stop it because they will lose millions from the expensive tests they create.

No they won't. The genie is already out of the bottle.

This is old news. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19291258 He has applied for a patent. Although the test costs 3 cents, by the time it's available to the general consumer it will cost a bit more (to cover clinical trials etc.), and any pharmaceutical company that invests will make a profit.

[RedSauce]

No they won't. The genie is already out of the bottle.

Do you not think they will try and find fault with some aspect of it to prevent/delay it being used?

[NotAllThere]

No. Careful you don't get into tin foil hat conspiracy theory territory... it's marginally possibly they might attempt to rubbish it, but they'd only do that if they had something that was almost as good in the pipeline, and they don't. It's also very risky, since the pharma industry is intensively scrutinized and has had to clean up it's act a lot. If you want true horror stories, rather than those perpetuated by irrational anti-pharma magic bean promoters on the internet, I recommend Ben Goldacre's 'Bad Pharma'.

When a drug (or test) eventually reaches market, it has cost a fortune - that's partly why they're often so expensive (another reason is that yanks have a completely stupid health care system). A significant portion of the cost to market is the R&D. With this, there's not much R&D, but there's still the rest; developing an over-the-counter, mass-producible solution, marketing, clinical trials, formal regulation. That's going to need money and expertise. I wouldn't be surprised at all if a pharma company were to get involved to supply these things - although governments and charitable organisations (Cancer research for example) do as well (often using big pharma expertise!).

Pharma isn't just about hugely expensive medication. Bayer still make a lot of money from aspirin - at a penny a pill. Roche Diagnostics device that measures blood sugar is also relatively inexpensive. I think this cancer test will probably retail for $20-$50.

[eek]

I'm surprised we haven't done the car mechanic and his device to ease child birth

Argentine car mechanic invents device to help difficult births - Telegraph

[eek]

Amazing
15-year-old genius revolutionizes cancer detection with 3-cent*test | RocketNews24

Nice to read a "good news" story for a change.

Although the one about the horny student was good too

Somewhere in the UK there a dogs trained to sniff out cancer. Twas in the Times last week so I can't link to the article....

[NotAllThere]

I'm surprised we haven't done the car mechanic and his device to ease child birth

Argentine car mechanic invents device to help difficult births - Telegraph

That's really cool as well. But the photo looks like they're suffocating the "baby".

Somewhere in the UK there a dogs trained to sniff out cancer. Twas in the Times last week so I can't link to the article....

Yeah - but _which_ cancer? Edit: ovarian - http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264629.php