The Cash Cow in 'Fertility' Medicine
By Pamela M Tsigdinos,
Healthcare in America
| 10. 23. 2016
On average, the cost of a basic IVF cycle in the U.S ranges from $12,000 — $15,000 yet three out of four times it fails
20 million fails. This is one stat not discussed at the latest American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Scientific Congress and Expo. It’s also not posted on fertility clinic member websites nor shared on their social media feeds but it should be.
Last week thousands of physicians, nurses, scientists and lab technicians gathered in Salt Lake City joined by legions of pharmaceutical representatives, ‘fertility’ entrepreneurs and service providers in full on ‘sell mode.’
It’s been nearly 40 years since in vitro fertilization (IVF) became available. There has been explosive growth in the size and scope of clinics and profit taking but no commensurate improvement in IVF outcomes.
Here are five other facts that aren’t widely known but should be:
Fact #1: ‘Fertility’ is now a huge market. That’s right: a market. The global In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) market size was valued at $9.6 billion in 2014. A more recent report by Grand View Research, Inc. projects the global ...
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By Lori Andrews, Guest Columnist
| 06.18.2019
Editors note: This article was originally published on ourbodiesourselves.org and is reposted here with generous permission from Our Bodies Our Selves.
Six years ago, on June 13, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court in AMP v. Myriad took a great step forward for women’s health by unanimously ruling that human genes could not be patented. Now a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives have released a bill that would allow companies to own our genes once again.
Article 1 of...
Six years ago, the question of who, if anyone, could patent a human gene was (we thought) settled by the Supreme Court in what is known as the Myriad decision. Their answer was, no one: human genes may not be patented because a “naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible.”
Unfortunately, a small but influential coalition in Congress is trying hard to overturn that decision.
A key part of the 2013 Supreme Court ruling was to...
By Kelly Servick, Science | 06.04.2019
A congressional proposal that would overturn a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that barred the patenting of human genes and ease other restrictions on patenting software and biomedical inventions is drawing fierce criticism from some scientific societies and patient advocates....
By Marcy Darnovsky, ISSUES in Science and Technology | 06.05.2019
As the debate about heritable genome editing unfolds, divergent perspectives are coming more clearly into view. Those who see it as offering little or no benefit while posing unacceptable societal risks support either the currently prevailing policies that ban it...
