Nelis

Here in the Netherlands there is a union of all insurance companies (Zorgverzekeraars Nederland). I think that would be the organization to bring this idea under the attention. I am consulting some friends who are medical doctors to hear their opinion about it. After that I want to put the 'business case' on paper and write a founded letter that can be send to to this organization, and to their members. So what I am looking for is estimated figures on the cost of medical treatment of Clusterheadache. And estimated figures on the needed funding for research to get LSD/Psylocibine (or BOL!) approved for prescription by a medical doctor. Are there any available? Let's leave a new trail! Greets Nelis

The thing is that there is a prisoner's dilemma here: one insurance company won't carry the cost for the benefit of others. So the best way to approach this idea is to see if there are organizations in which insurance companies cooperate for their mutual benefit. These organizations would be the best to understand and see their joined profit from an investment needed to get a "Clusterbusting" treatment on the market. I have to dig into the Dutch situation about cooperation between healthcare insurance companies. Maybe others could pick up the idea for their local/national situation. If we could get international cooperation between insurance companies the funding needed for proper research is very, very small compared to budgets available! I would say it also offers opportunities for many other treatments that are not worthwhile for commercial pharmaceutical companies. But let us stick with the subject here at hand! Greets, NelisÂ

Hi folks, After seeing the impressive lecture of Bob Wold and the story behind Clusterbusters I wanted to share my idea about funding further research on Psylicibine/LSD as a treatment for clusterheadaches. It is clear that no pharmaceutical company will be interested in funding this research because there are no intellectual properties to be gained (read profits to be made). But there are other commercial companies who can benefit from this research, i.e. health-care insurance companies. Their profit would come from the fact that the reduction in cost for treating their clients would be significant compared to traditional medication. I live in the Netherlands where since a few years insurance companies have become more powerful players in the markets of health-care. The reasoning behind this new (law) situation is that these companies have the best insight on the cost of treatments. They have a strong saying in the choice of medication where there are alternatives, for instance generics vs branded medication. The idea behind this is to help (pharmaceutical) markets be more efficient. Now my idea is that a treatment like LSD/Psylocibin is very cost effective and would be of interest to invest money into in order to gain profits for the insurance company because of opportunity cost. I think this topic is worth investigating, lets do some research on this! Greetings form the Netherlands, Nelis

THANK YOU BOB! Your effort is priceless. The knowledge about clusterbusting gave me the courage to face this debilitating disease. Thank you! Nelis