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Could the common cold become a thing of the past? Scientists have unraveled the genetic code for all 99 strains of the rhinovirus, but there may be a disconnect between excitement over the feat in the lab versus at pharmaceutical companies that would ordinarily develop a cure or vaccine against infection.

The discovery, published this week in Science, means that, in theory, drug or vaccine developers have a map of possible targets against the cold virus. "There is real promise now, based on full understanding of this virus, that we have never had before," study co-author Stephen Liggett, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told the Baltimore Sun. "Let's get, perhaps, a single pill [that] will kill the virus that day, that moment, and within six hours you are cured. It is possible."

But drug industry analysts are less enthusiastic. The cold might knock you out for a week or so, but it's not a major health threat to most people, raising the question of whether patients would bother paying for medicine, notes the New York Times. Relenza and Tamiflu, two antiviral drugs against another common virus, the flu, do work, but aren’t big moneymakers for manufacturers. Add to that the $700 million cost of developing a new medicine, and companies might not bother, experts told the newspaper.

Nonetheless, Fernando Martinez, a professor at the University of Arizona, told the Times that "it would be an extraordinary advance" if scientists could make anti-virals against the forms of the cold most likely to sicken asthma patients, who suffer more than most people when they catch a cold. In the interim, a good night's sleep may stop you from catching cold. And short of that … there's always grandma's chicken soup.

Image of rhinovirus via Wikimedia

7 Comments

1. 1. JamesDavis 07:29 AM 2/14/09

   It is really a shame when a drug company devalue human health to the point where it is not profitable enough to cure or heal. This drug that can cure the common cold would be sold all over the world and a world wide sell is not profitable enough for the drug companies. I think we should start looking at a different drug company to manufacture this drug and all our other drugs. These greedy companies want to keep people sick and dieing so they can make a buck off them. There is something wrong about these drug companies and like Peanut Corp. of America, should be shut down.

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2. 2. artu in reply to JamesDavis 08:47 AM 2/14/09

   Mr. James I share your aggravation in the story's inference. I'm not convenienced just yet there isn't one pharmaceutical company or nation on earth willing to invest in developing a vaccine and or medicine from this truly species advancing brake through. Although chicken soup is soothing it's balm wares off when the bowl empties. It's my sense a cure for the cold-sick would be like adoration to the love-sick, irresistible.

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3. 3. rshoff 07:41 PM 2/14/09

   The responsibility and rewards of developing drugs should be taken out of the hands of the private sector. Capitalism is the antithesis of altruism.

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4. 4. Whizzardboy, M.D. 02:20 AM 2/15/09

   I beg to differ....Capitalism is the engine of empowerment and incentive. The greatest scientific achievements have come from Capitalistic endeavors. Big Government needs to get out of the way, and let the Free Market work! I don't want lawyers telling us which drugs to make and for whom and at what price! Government kills incentive and squashes creativity for the"common good". Socialism has never worked anywhere it has been tried. Because, as Orwell said it so well, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".

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5. 5. JamesDavis 08:50 AM 2/15/09

   Mr. Artu; if the United States does not develop the vaccine, they will not allow it to come into the country. Turkey developed a cure for diabetes nearly 3,000 years ago and the US still will not allow the formula to be made in the US. The US designed a cure, not a cover up, for cancer in 1953 and because a Mexican doctor developed it, the US will not allow it to be practiced in the US. So you see, if the US doesn't design it, make it, and develop it, they will not allow it to be used in the country.

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6. 6. williamwillywill 07:18 PM 2/16/09

   Ghee [Clarified Butter] healed me of my mental illness and heals all sicknesses as written in Lotus Sutra Buddhism. It seems that my near sightedness is being healed. I have fewer colds.
   William Edward Vasili
   Andreyevich Shkimba

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7. 7. Rodney 12:14 PM 2/17/09

   True that capitalism and the free market make the quest for cures worth the effort.But it also has been the reason for false claims and using the FDA and other means to discourage any who might compete.The price of medicine made and sold in USA is higher then Canada/overseas because if the other countries would make their own copy of it if it was to high,like the flu vaccine a few years back,the USA had a short supply and Europe had plenty{made in France} As for claims of healing and cures in all of the world for many kinds of sickness, who knows for sure about anything when it comes to the power of the human mind and body.

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