Eroom’s Law – Leslie O.

Hello, Leslie is back. Chapter 1 was interesting, learned a couple of things I didn’t even know happened and some of them surprised me. For example, I didn’t know that Eroom’s Law was a thing, so I searched it up and it is that drug discovery is becoming more expensive and slower over time. “The rate of new-drug approval has been falling since the 1950’s.” (page 18) from Rigor Mortis. It surprised me the more I kept reading, “If you extrapolate the trend, starting in 1950, you’ll find that drug development essentially comes to a halt in 2040. Beyond that point developing any drug becomes infinitely expensive.” (page 18) I am surprised because there are many rare diseases and other diseases that don’t have cures, and most research is not continued or has failed to reproduce.

No, scientists are not just wasting their time and our money, what is happening is that scientists have misleading results and that slows their progress. “When an exciting scientific discovery is reported, scientific are quick to jump on the bandwagon, often without considering whether the original finding is in fact true.” (page 23) There were scientists announcing that bone marrow stem cells could transform into cells of the liver, brain and other organs. Amy Wagers tried seeing this for herself but it did not succeed, there were also other scientist that didn’t succeed. Why would scientists be announcing false information?

Lester Curtin was found unconscious and the doctors took four days for them to find what was wrong. He had glioblastoma multiforme which is a brain tumor, “Half of patients with this diagnosis live less than fifteen months, and 95 percent are dead within five years.” (page 19) Not only that but this strikes about 12,000 Americans per year. There are 25,000 of papers published, and no cure. How have scientists not made progress or found a cure for a lethal cancer? There have been up to two hundred clinical trials about glioblastoma multiforme and every single clinical trial has failed. “The NIH spends about $300 million a year on brain cancer research.” (page 21) Yes, I reread that twice, because I thought I read that wrong but no I did not. Yes they spend $300 million on brain cancer research and we still haven’t found a cure. Maybe it is because scientists have been having misleading information, don’t check their work or their research. This shouldn’t be happening, and families shouldn’t be given false hopes because scientists were mislead.