Monday, October 13, 2014

CANCER IS CURABLE BUT THE BUSINESS WOULD DIE

                                                                Image coutesy of www.giveforward.com

This article was born out of curiosity after seeing the 2014 movie The Cure (which I'd advise that you try to see anyway). It could be easily dismissed as fantasy or fiction but it should be viewed objectively.  

The movie is about this Fortune 500 CEO of a pharmaceutical company who came up with a cure for cancer but had to keep it secret because if it is released, the billions generated from the sales of drugs used in chemotherapy would be lost. Also because money generated from chemo would surpass that of the cure. He hoarded the cure for 11years. Fortunately, two biochemists working in the company uncovered this secret and he contracted assassins to kill them so as to keep his secret that could save millions of people if released. 

Although the film climaxed with the cure being released, in the real world we are yet to come up with a cure for cancer, which is why I think questions should be asked and the issue looked into critically.

Millions if not billions are spent annually on drugs used in chemotherapy alone. Even with several researches we are made to believe is ongoing in oncology, there is yet to be a final cure for the disease. This movie could be easily discarded as a work of fiction but before we do that, we should really take time to look at this prediction (which is what I prefer to refer to it as) because there could be some iota of truth embedded within. It addressed an important issue which is the possibility of there being a cure already but is kept secret just to satisfy some people's selfish desires. 

We live in a world governed by the filthy rich and powerful, a number of who makes money either from legitimate or illegitimate and sometimes unnoticed means. If that is the case, the possibility of there being a conspiracy to keep the purported cure a secret shouldn't be waved off. There could be this grand conspiracy to keep the cure secret, who knows. Even conspiracy theorists would tell you that the true rulers or those responsible for formulation of policies in the world are not the ones that appears as presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, CEO's etc but a particular group of people lurking in the shadows. Everybody wants to get or remain rich hence the quest to make millions or sustain the in-flow of billions at all cost so if there is a final cure, money is lost and that is bad business so they could assume that it better for people to die so that there could still be a lot of money in their pockets in circulation. The same could be applied to a number of terminal illnesses that we are made to believe have no cure yet.

One may be forced to ask, researches to find a cure could cost billions of dollars. How do you think such money could be spent and the resulting cure hoarded? My answer would be this: In our world, are billionaires and multi-millionaires who are keen on sustaining that status and hence would invest in any venture that seem profitable. More like, let's make all the money we can from chemo and then leave the cure as 'treasure' for our heirs and heiress'.

While discussing with a friend about this same subject, she asked, "But thousands of lives are lost annually, do you think they would prefer to have people die because of their quest for riches?" The sad truth is, it won't be first and probably not the last time that money is made at the expense of human lives in the world that we live in. Some of the pharmaceutical companies around carry out untimely human trials indiscriminately just to beat their competitors to that "pioneer status"-- we produced that drug before others. Also, most wars are fought solely for financial reasons but we are made to believe otherwise. The perpetrators of these wars have a picture of profits that would be made as against the number of lives that would be lost.
Bottom line is: They don't care as long as there is money to be made.

I'm not of the opinion that there is already a cure for cancer but just as the movie suggests, the possibility shouldn't be erased entirely. It is something that is worth thinking about.

PS: If you are in or around Lagos, there is a free breast and cervical cancer screening going on @ 118 Bode Thomas, Surulere courtesy of Dr. Femi Olaleye, Optimal Cancer care and Go PINK Nigeria.

------------------------------------------------------------
Follow me on Twitter: @victorikeji