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It distracts from conventional treatment.

It's unproven.

It's been disproven.

It's dangerous.

As a treatment laetrile is unproven.

It is understandable that many people would read this as meaning the same thing as it doesn’t work. However the term needs to be more closely examined.

 In the United States before any prescription or over the counter drug can be sold, the law requires the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA), to give approval. In particular the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, one of the divisions of the FDA, is responsible for ensuring the safety and efficacy of new drugs.

 The FDA does not directly test the drugs it regulates. Instead it is the responsibility of the pharmaceutical company bringing the new drug to market, the drug’s “sponsor”, to make an investigational new drug application, (IND) to the FDA. If approved the sponsor conducts a series of tests then submits a new drug application (NDA) which is reviewed by teams of FDA employees.

 However what has happened over time is that the increasing cost of the approval process has excluded all but the largest pharmaceutical companies.

 One study published in 2003 found the average out-of pocket cost per new drug to be $403 million and the average time span for 3 phases of trials and the FDA approval process to be 7.5 years. (Di Masi, Hansen & Grabowski, The price of innovation: new estimates of drug development costs, Journal of Health Economics 22 (2003) 151–185)

 3 out of 20 approved drugs bring in sufficient revenue to cover their developmental costs. In addition, pharmaceutical companies have to spend large sums on marketing because of fierce competition from other companies.

 Laetrile cannot be patented because it comprises natural ingredients. It is obvious no investor will commit the enormous sums and years required to test a medication that can’t be patented and thus cannot guarantee any hope of profit.

 As a result it is easy to make the criticism of laetrile that it isn’t “proven” but this simply means that the current system makes “proving” laetrile impractical.

 With the current chemotherapy industry worth approximately US$8.5 billion per year, it’s easy to see that the real question is one of economics rather than what works. It is also possible to see the real and actual motivation those associated with the drug industry in trying to undermine the credibility of inexpensive alternatives.