Hi all,
I’m in a bad situation where I’m about to lose my livelihood as an engineer. My job was far too complex for me to continue.
Once the research has proved causation and identified a biomarker, how likely is it that we will be compensated for what happened to us? Would it likely be a substantial sum of money? Health is more important than money, but this is important for us all and especially for those of us who have been disabled to the point where they can no longer work.
There’s a way to go before we arrive at a concrete link between the drug and this disease. That requires multiple studies and importantly, a disease model in animals.
How quickly we get there is up to us. We’re making good progress but there’s a lot to do.
Once we get there, I think it’s likely that patients can expect compensation. What level is anyone’s guess, but I believe the Vioxx case settled for something like $5bn for 27k cases. That’s something like $185k per family. That was 2006/07 maybe adjust +15% for inflation.
Is that enough for someone’s life? Almost certainly not, but this is the system we live in.
I think the important thing here to look at also is that if even 1% of that total settlement was dedicated to research, it would almost certainly deliver a viable treatment/cure.
It’s hard to know though. There are differences in the two cases, in that many PFS patients have a genuine claim to lost wages and other damages.