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DR. JACOB: Now, could you bend your head to the left side? Any discomfort?
SHERRICK: None.
DR. JACOB: Okay, now how about to the right side? Any discomfort?
SHERRICK: No.
WALLACE: Sandy, if you had done this three months ago, four months ago, what
would have happened?
SHERRICK: I would have been in pain. He wouldn't have been able to touch me.
WALLACE: When a woman has been in pain for two years, and has an injection of,
or topical application of, DMSO and suddenly a miracle happens; when a
quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons has been using it off and on for years, and
says, "I swear by I'm telling you my arm is better- I throw faster, straighter,
better"; when you get testimonial after testimonial, I ask you, what's wrong with
those testimonials?
DR. CROUT: Nothing's wrong with them. They may be right. But they don't get
the-the-- they don't provide the scientific evidence that's necessary for
acceptance by scientists.
WALLACE: It's not just the FDA that's skeptical, not just the medical
establishment; the drug companies don't have much enthusiasm for DMSO, either.
Why? Jacob and others say it's because DMSO is a common chemical solvent that
can be manufactured for four dollars a quart, on which no drug company can get an
exclusive patent; therefore, there is no big financial return available.
Did an executive of a major drug company really tell you, Dr. Jacob, "I don't care if
it" - DMSO - "is the major drug of our century, and we all know it is, it isn't worth
it to us"?
DR. JACOB: I was told that if DMSO were approved, it would be competitive,
and-- and they didn't hold the patents. Yes, I was told that.
WALLACE: And you will not tell us-
DR. JACOB: I- I would not tell you the the name of the drug company or the
individual.
WALLACE: Why?
DR. JACOB: That's the only question I will not- I will not answer. I'll answer any
other question.
DR. CROUT: I think it's a fact of life that drug companies are not going to invest
in something unless they think there is some financial return.
WALLACE: But we come back to the main reason for the FDA's objection to
DMSO - that a story like Sandy Sherrick's doesn't take the place of a scientific test.
SHERRICK: Well, that's fine. I can understand their feeling. But they've got to be
able to look at the test results and take me as an individual. I have no reason to
say it does work or it doesn't. All I can say is what it's done for me personally. It
worked for me.
WALLACE: Two footnotes. DMSO is now available for treatment of assorted
ailments in Western Europe, the Soviet Union, Japan and Latin America. And
tomorrow morning in Washington, the House Committee on Aging begins an inquiry
into why DMSO is not available to all Americans for any appropriate ailment,
including plain and simple pain.
