Prognosis: Misconception

Should a patient dying of a disease with no proven cure have the right to try whatever experimental drug they want? A controversial new law signed by President Trump this year says that they should, bypassing the FDA. In episode seven, Bloomberg's Michelle Fay Cortez explores what the new Right To Try law means for desperate patients who want access to experimental treatments. It isn't as simple as it sounds.

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When you pick up your prescription at the pharmacy, do you ever wonder how that pill made it your way? Who discovered it? Who believed in it when no one else did? Who invested the money to bring it to market? This week on Prognosis, Bloomberg's Rebecca Spalding tells the surprising journey of one life-saving drug, from discovery to market. It's a story about a Nobel Prize winner, cutting edge genetic research, billions of pharmaceutical dollars, and of all things, a worm. What does it tell us about health care in America?

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Researchers and pharmaceutical companies have poured time and money into developing an effective drug to combat obesity. But time and again, the drugs have failed to deliver. In episode five of Prognosis, Bloomberg's James Paton talks to scientists on the cutting edge of weight-loss research, and the companies that may finally be close to finding a medical solution to the obesity crisis.

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Eighteen years ago, scientists decoded the human genome. But what was supposed to create an era of new cures didn't work out that way, at least not at first. In episode four of Prognosis, some of the most famous names in genetics explain why it took so long to go from mapping life's code to actually helping people, laying the foundations for technologies on the scientific and ethical cutting edge, like modifying people's genes.  

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In episode three of Prognosis, Kristen V. Brown and Sarah McBride take a trip to Burning Man. They're there to follow Rick Doblin, who has become something of a folk hero for those who believe MDMA—Ecstasy—could be a viable clinical treatment for things like PTSD. But to help push an illegal drug into the mainstream, it takes lots of cash. And to find money for an unconventional treatment, what better place than Burning Man?

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If you had told people from the 1970s that few decades later the globe would be connected with powerful computers held in the palm of your hand, they could be forgiven for thinking you were seriously deluded. Now, a growing number of scientists are convinced we're on a similar threshold with genetic engineering. Today we'll take you on a tour of a biohacker's DNA experiment to change how frogs—and possibly people—grow muscles. It's an experiment which he insists anyone can try at home. He'll even sell you a kit—frogs included—to do it.

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More than a million Americans suffer from Type 1 diabetes. The disease occurs when the pancreas mysteriously stops producing insulin, the hormone that converts food into energy. Modern medicine has been able to recreate insulin, but not the finely calibrated delivery mechanism of the pancreas. Now a group of like-minded do-it-yourselfers have gotten together on the internet and—working outside the purview of organized medicine—have figured out how to link a pump, glucose monitor and smartphone to simulate a functioning pancreas. The results have been spectacularly successful.

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Where does a medical cure come from? 100 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for scientists to test medicines by taking a dose themselves. As medical technologies get cheaper and more accessible, patients and DIY tinkerers are trying something similar—and mainstream medicine is racing to catch up. Prognosis explores the leading edge of medical advances, and asks who gets—or should get—access to them. We look at how innovation happens, when it fails, and what it means to the people with a disease trying to feel better, live longer, or avoid death.

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