by freddyy » Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:16 am
It is indeed very exciting research. I am also excited about the possibilities of CRISPR-Cas9. Just a few days ago several news sites reported about eliminating some retroviruses as well as some other materials in the organs of pigs which have been a show-stopper for pig->human transplants. With specially engineered pigs we could perhaps solve the organ shortage in short order. They had equal hopes to solve remaining issues of rejection using same techniques.
You are absolutely right, we should be thankful to live in a civilization where healthcare is viewed upon as a basic right and not as a commodity for the wealthy.
The medicines for suppression are pretty expensive here (In Sweden) too, even if we pay it through taxes. I did some research about Betalacept and found a study from TLV where they compare cost effectiveness to Tacrolimus and Cyclosporine. Cyclosporine is about 5000 euro/year, Tacrolimus slightly more expensive at around 6000 euro/year, and Betalacept much more expensive at 14000 euro/year (and was deemed not to be worth the cost). I think another common suppressive agent (MMF) is also pretty expensive. Prednisone is dirt cheap though.
All this is of course just a fraction of what dialysis costs. Getting people transplanted saves quite a lot of money in the end.
But yeah, even adding all that up we are still far off from the 25k USD that Americans pay. I guess single-payer system helps with negotiating prices down quite a lot!
