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Asked by sloth-savior to Aaron, David, Elaine, Sarah, Zoe on 17 Nov 2014.
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David Foley answered on 17 Nov 2014:
Yes this is true. Put simply there is no market for a cure for the common cold. Remember that all drugs have side effects and since a cold, whilst annoying, only last a few days and is non-lethal, there is little point in exposing yourself to a drug or vaccine to “cure”. Certainly any vaccine would suffer from the same issue as the flu vaccine – it would have to be given regularly to overcome mutation.
Now the influenza virus is different. This can cause serious ill health and death in the elderly or immunocompromised, and kills people in this country every winter. This is why each year we develop a new flu vaccine and we can also prescribe antiviral drugs in extreme cases.
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Sarah Ashwood answered on 18 Nov 2014:
There is no better medicine for a common cold than lots of orange juice and a bit of a rest (This is what my mum used to say!). It’s true though. Colds come and go so quickly and often don’t really impede your life too much – yea you feel a bit rubbish for a few days but you can get up and carry on with things. It’s just not worth spending millions developing a cure when we have things that are more severe to think about.
Plus, there are so many strains of it, it would be so difficult to actually develop something that was an over-riding cure. Money is better spent elsewhere. -
Zoe Roberts answered on 18 Nov 2014:
Unfortunately this is true! However colds don’t last very long we can make a full recovery from them without the need of drugs. The people with the money in drug development focus on targeting illnesses that are more serious.
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