Tuesday, March 21, 2006

61: sad but true Alzheimer's joke: Alzheimer's research vs Viagra and breast implants

A friend just sent this to me:

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

I did attempt to do the reseach to back up these figures. I found a report on spending for cosmetic surgery but it costs $3,000 to purchase. Maybe I'll throw it out on Yahoo answers.

Revision: I did find this much, from http://www.alz.org/AboutAD/statistics.asp: "The federal government estimates spending approximately $647 million for Alzheimer’s disease research in fiscal year 2005."

So I still have to find out how much on Viagra and boob implants.
I found that in 2005, In the first quarter of last year (2005), Viagra network TV spending approached $11 million.
Okay, here's more: Last year's (2005) world sales for the medications were about $2.7 billion, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey estimates. (for all 3 "impotence" drugs: Cialis, Levitra, & Viagra)
So right there, that figure blows the Alzhiemer's research money totally away. It's more than four times as much.

Okay, here's the boob figure. It's from 2004, but I'm sure in 2005 it was only more. From Forbes: The average fee for augmentation surgery is $3,373, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, making total spending for the surgery $890.6 million in 2004.
Or 1.3x the spending on Alzheimer's research.

You know what? Doing this research just made me sick to my stomach. And to my heart.

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