The problem with stem cell treatment or organ transplants?

[nec209]

The problem with stem cell treatment or organ transplants?

The problem with stem cell treatment or 3D organ printing.

Could 3D printing be the future of organ transplants? - BBC News

https://youtu.be/IUx_vkB3PFc?si=vgAQZnhd5n6Q7EUv

What’s really blocking the development of stem cells and tissue engineering is the fact that it is impossible to sell them profitably in a country where you have to spend $1 billion and 15 years of time to get government approval to sell it at all, and then it has to be paid for by an insurance company or government payer rather than the consumer. 

So the reality is, these things aren’t going to come to the market until there is a societal level change in what we expect the government to do for us. That isn’t likely to happen for generations.

Do you really want corporations or governments owning parts of your body?

[CharonY]

48 minutes ago, nec209 said:

What’s really blocking the development of stem cells and tissue engineering is the fact that it is impossible to sell them profitably in a country where you have to spend $1 billion and 15 years of time to get government approval to sell it at all, and then it has to be paid for by an insurance company or government payer rather than the consumer. 

 

That is not the only issue. Remember, most of the discovery in this field is not done by companies, but by researchers funded by public money. And the first hurdle is to develop something that is sufficiently advanced where a clear translation into commercial therapeutics is feasible. The alternative, of course, is a moonshot approach, with more funding from the government. But in either case, there are still technical challenges on multiple levels for both, stem cell therapeutics as well as tissue engineering. These include poor viability and lower regenerative abilities of transplants (I am not sure about the latest developments, but at least a few years ago, it remained an unsolved problem). At this point feasibility is more of an inhibitor than profitability. Both are obviously linked, and solving the technical challenges can move thing forward.

That being said, other than financed by private sector or government, what alternative do you see to fund the necessary developments?