Well, this is disappointing, to say the least:

According to Senior Vice President, David Dollar, "This is a revolutionary face cream - a product so different and innovative, we believe it could generate enormous consumer interest."

So much for that company, you know, the one that was promising really interesting things in telomere and mitochondrial science not so long ago:

Telomolecular Corporation [recently] acquired a new technology from Stanford Leland Jr. University. The technology, called Mitofusin 1, allows for the repair of damaged mitochondrial DNA. Damage to mitochondrial DNA leads to forms of aging and a variety of diseases.

What do we get out of the far end of the pipe? Another useless "anti-aging" potion manufacturer - as through we had a deficit of those, not enough salespeople clogging up public understanding of what is plausible in longevity research. While recognizing that we all thrive only by paying our respects at the temple of Mammon, it is disheartening to see yet another organization taking the path of least resistance and least promise. It is a shame, a tragedy, that the oppressive state of medical regulation in the developed world makes this an almost expected outcome. It is far, far easier to make a living unmolested in the provision of bread and circuses than to build something new and valuable with a boot pressed to your neck.

Incentives matter - and the FDA refuses to approve anything that might actually repair some form of age-related damage. Any medical application that might actually be approved to treat an FDA-approved disease is forced through insanely expensive, unnecessary and overwrought trial processes - unless of course it is one of the many, many new medical technologies that is discarded as not cost-effective in the face of this huge barrier.

So it is we have an ocean of "anti-aging" nonsense, bread and circuses with only the most tenuous connection to science of interest, because government regulators have made that the best road to a profit. Ultimately, venture investors will, as for most people, demand profits over the warm feeling of altruism and frustrations of trying to do good that unelected, unaccountable government employees have decided should not be done.

The systems and organizations of medicine and medical research are nothing short of insane in their structure and actions; a sea of waste and walls to block those best placed and eager to turn dreams into reality. It is long overdue a revolution.

Posted by Reason at March 7, 2008 8:44 PM | TrackBack (0)