W. Alan Beckelheimer "Something To Think About ..." Published Aug. 11, 2004

Prescription drugs reach record cost in Tennessee

Last year the state of Tennessee bore a greater financial burden than any other state in regard to its per capita expenditure on prescription drugs. As if the above statistic weren't shocking enough, Tennesseans also paid as much as 65 percent more for their prescription drugs than citizens residing in other states. I was surprised to discover this fact, especially with the budget woes our state has been enduring for the last few years.

In 1999, the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States was the widest it has ever been since our government began keeping records on it in 1947. Since 1970, the income of the poorest fifth of U.S. citizens has continued to decrease while that of the richest fifth has gone up 20 percent.

The income of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population has increased by more than 100 percent.

In 1996, the income of an American located in the 95th percentile of income distribution was four times the median income and 23 times the lowest income of an American located at the 5th percentile of income distribution.

In my opinion, one of the contributing factors to this disparity of economic station in America is the high cost of prescription drugs in our society.

One way that our economy and indeed our society could improve upon this egregious imbalance is through long-term investment into stem-cell research.

Stem-cell research has the potential to effectively treat debilitating diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, while reducing the cost of prescription drugs by making their use obsolete.

Parkinson's disease afflicts 1.5 million people in the United States. Its sufferers first experience weakness and then slurred speech, uncontrollable tremors and eventually death.

The cause of Parkinson's disease is not entirely known and there is as of yet no cure.

What is known is that the disease works by destroying a small section of the brain, the substantia nigra, which controls movement.

Stem-cell research provides hope for patients with Parkinson's disease whereas prescription drug therapy has provided none.

Recent advances in stem-cell research have possibly advanced the pace at which we might be able to effectively treat diseases such as Parkinson's.

Embryonic stem cells are the inner mass of cells of the blastocyst and exist in an undifferentiated state for a short period of time, approximately five to seven days after fertilization.

When placed in a culture dish, these cells are called embryonic stem cells.

By themselves, these cells do not seem to be able to develop into a fetus because they lack the promoting part of the blastocyst that forms the placenta.

The hope is that these stem cells, or some modification of them, could be transplanted into the proper sites of patients with diseased or non-functioning tissues, such as those found in Parkinson's disease, kidney disease and diabetes.

Pluripotent stem cells are isolated from human embryos that are a few days old. Cells from these embryos can be used to create pluripotent stem cell "lines" -cell cultures that can be grown indefinitely in the laboratory. Pluripotent stem cell lines have also been developed from fetal tissue obtained from fetal tissue (older than 8 weeks of development).

Stem cells are by their nature pluripotent, meaning they are able to become many different types of tissue cells. This being the case, once stem-cells were introduced to the body they would multiply and summarily take on the jobs of the diseased or missing cells.

Thus by investing some of our national capital into the research and development of stem-cell research, we could overcome its initial cost burden by freeing our economy from the long term trap currently sprung on our nation by prescription drug companies.

Such activity is a just pursuit of our society because of the freedoms it promises. Stem-cell research has the potential to dramatically improve the health of the American citizenry thereby improving the quality of life and productivity of all of our citizens, not just those that have the luxury of not having to make the monthly choice between their food or their medicine.

To address Tennessee's high prescription drug expenditures in the short term, request generic drugs when they are available and write your elected representatives to request federal funding be spent on stem-cell research.

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W. Alan Beckelheimer is a Crossville Chronicle staffwriter. His column appears each Wednesday in the Chronicle.