Without going into detail— as am way past an NDA and out of the “biz”.... you are mostly correct. The really big diseases— the killers: diabetes, cancer, and no 1— coronary disease (dyslipidemia, vascular stroke etc)-— are “danced” around. Except by true investigators who have uncovered the mechanisms.
A prime example of this is type 2 diabetes (not type 1): the chemical class of thiazolidinediones (Rezulin brand, first in the class of copycats)... was effective in reducing insulin resistance that Type 2 causes. It COULD have been dosed once a week but wasn’t because of marketing decisions. The per day dosing created liver toxicity while not improving the biochemical picture that spread out dosing could have safely provided. People got liver failure— the Tort lawyers (and HMOs and insurer/payors) got involved and the drug was pulled. Now we have moved on to other more toxic compounds.
Genius friend at Einstein Medical School shared this entire experience.. with deep regret and anger at FDA and their pals at competitive firms. This is how it is. Not unlike the “revolving door” seen from ex-military to the military industries, and how, for example great aircraft never come to be (for albeit different reasons than marketing/drug dosing/pricing issues). Rant over.
Similar example is available with the story of Inspra (class IV heart failure patient got out of bed and walked to the mailbox- but their hearts were so damaged previous to treatment, they couldn’t stand the strain). The issue there was... “quality of life, feeling better even as one is clearly not cured” vs. “count the bodies— does this reduce death by heart failure”. Sign of our times still. that and govt. controlled medical legal system— aka obamaumaocare. Now with the genome project— the nazis are still at it.
We have a compound about to go into Phase 1 that may handle from the RNA level activity. More info soon....seems to only kill
Cancer cells and leaves healthy cells alone. Freepmail if you are interested in more info