X-Message-Number: 12468
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 06:32:32 -0700
From: Tim Freeman <>
Subject: Visser & clinical trials; storage and technology costs

In cryomsg 12464, Mike Darwin said:
>In fact, 21CM recently abandoned efforts at clinical trials for promising
>drugs to treat shock and multisystem organ failure from trauma and sepis
>which were ideally suited to a "Third World " environment and economy
>*directly* as a result of the Visser affair.

I don't understand this yet.  You might be saying:

1. The Visser affair depleted a resevoir of money that would otherwise
have been spent on doing the clinical trials.  (But why are they part
of the same pool of money?)

2. The Visser affair caused the regulatory authorities to be
predjudiced against 21CM.  (In this case have you considered licensing
the technology to someone else who might want to bring it forward?)

3. The Visser affair caused the regulatory authorities to be
predjudiced against certain technologies, including the drugs that
were going to go through the trials.  (But what is the resemblance
between DMF and the drug that were going to go through clinical
trials?)

4. The Visser affair screwed up the regulatory structure of South
Africa enough that attempting clinical trials in South Africa in
general is pointless.  (But why is South Africa the only option?)

5. Something else?

>Furthermore, the financial and technological barriers to the application of
>this technology to an estimated 1/3rd of human cryonics patients NOW, are
>trivial compared, say, to the effort that has gone into the construction of
>CI's latest and largest cryostat or Alcor's ambitious program of training
>and "suspension services" revamping. 
>
>And the ultimate irony is, the storage costs will probably be lower and the
>up-front technology not more than 20% to 30% more costly than that employed
>by Alcor  now (the only high technology player left in the human
>cryopreservation field).

I, for one, would be interested in a description of what would be
required to do this, and some numbers supporting the cost estimates.
I am not at all clear on the difference between what you're proposing
and what BioTransport is trying to do.

-- 
Tim Freeman       
            http://www.infoscreen.com/resume.html
Web-centered Java, Perl, and C++ programming in Silicon Valley or offsite

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