CONSPIRACY THEORIES

2019 is the 60th anniversary of the first man Moon landing. I′m pretty sure that you know someone who has doubts about this event. Maybe someone has asked you….Why did we just go once? Why don't we go back?

The humankind hasn′t arrived once to the Moon….humans have landed on the moon 6 times and not just one or two men, twelve men have landed on the moon:

However, you are thinking that is impossible, why didn′t I know this... No it′s impossible to get there.

Well, another proof of concept are the images that NASA has on its website. In these photos you can see the Apollo 17 landing site.

Why do we love conspiracy theories?

Well the answer is easy, humans need certainty! We need patterns that helps us to make sense of the world and keeps us safe from sudden, unknown threats. Our brains interpret a random collection of events and attempts to seek out a thread that holds them all together. To our minds, a conspiracy theory is preferable and more comprehensible than a series of unconnected occurrences.

We prefer to think that this moon landing is false, we cannot understand how we were able to achieve such an incredible challenge. It′s easier to understand that this voyage to the moon is just a movie. We know that movies are real, but moon landing…..it′s not possible. Humans prefer easy answers to their brains because they generate comfort and certainty.

A few weeks ago, in a renowned newspaper we read a shocking piece of news: a well-known pharma company has concealed the cure for Alzheimer! Now everything makes sense, how can it be possible that we are developing drugs against cancer, new immune therapies…but not for Alzheimer? It was all because, they already knew the solution but they hid it because they wanted to make more money.

You think I'm overreacting? This was the headline: Pfizer had clues its blockbuster drug could prevent Alzheimer’s. Why didn’t it tell the world?

It easier to believe that a bunch of evil-executives are concealing the cure for Alzheimer than we don′t have a clue how to cure this horrible disease.

But before judging the journalists who wrote this story, let's analyze the data available to us.

When you read the article you discover that they make this statement from an internal Power Point of the company…ok this doesn′t seem to be really scientific. Furthermore, the data comes from a retrospective analysis from insurance claims. There were fewer patients diagnosed with Alzheimer in the etanercept group than in the other group (no etanercept)

First, you cannot state that etanercept reduce the risk of Alzheimer because there are tons of variables that you are not controlling and can be confounding factors (age, gender, race, co morbidities, treatments….)

Second, Alzheimer′s diagnose is not as easy as it seems. One of the likely reason we aren′t able to cure Alzheimer, it′s because we call Alzheimer's to a set of frontotemporal dementias that probably have little in common.

Third, what causes Alzheimer's is not just one thing, but the sum of several things, therefore its treatment will be the combination of several drugs and mechanisms of action.

However, you can state that even etanercept is not the solution for Alzheimer disease, they should disclose this info to help other researchers. Now let's explain why this argument isn't valid either:

1.- Developed a clinical trial: Pfizer supported an independent researcher to conduct a phase 2 clinical trial (Holmes C, et al. Neurology. 2015 May 26;84(21):2161-8) This study is a randomized, double blinded clinical trial (Class 1 Evidence), very different from a power point or a retrospective study. It′s true that you see interesting trends on cognitive and functional assessments (not statistically significant), but the number of patients is low (41 patients) and it′s a phase 2 study so the main objective is safety not efficacy. In summary, as the authors says: “larger more heterogeneous group needs to be tested before recommending its use for broader groups of patients”. That′s it, no conspiracy theories no evil executives… I think it′s easier to believe in conspiracy theories than to search in Pub Med.

This pharma company has the right not to invest its money in this project. Do you really think that they do not want to invest because a new clinical trial will cost 80 million? There is no cure for Alzheimer and every year we have 500.000 new patient’s all over the world. Can you imagine the benefits? Is it worth investing 80 million if you have the cure for Alzheimer′s disease? You will be the only player on the market…

2.- Other companies had the info and decided not to pursue this venture as well. Maybe it's a scientific and not an economic reason?

3.- This product is off patent, so anyone could start a clinical trial. If you really believe that this product is the cure for Alzheimer…congratulations! You can start this clinical trial or try to influence someone else to do it!

We are at the end of this article and you still think the same as before. John Maynard Keynes said that the human mind is like an egg, once the first sperm enters, a new sperm cannot enter. Ideas are pretty similar, once you have a strong believe in your mind it′s nearly impossible to think differently. I hope this article has made you question (at least) what you thought before