Hey Emmitt, I don't think anyone answered your
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I don't think anyone answered your question, and as our board's number 2 science guy behind TonyCorvette, I figured I'd give you a quick answer.
You seem to be mashing up how a drug is delivered with whether or not the FDA allows it to be a prescription medicine or not. They're only related in that many drugs delivered in pills are currently offered over the counter. But there are also transdermal patches, nasal sprays, and syrups offered over the counter. There are also drugs offered without prescription that have some decent potential for abuse, like the ephedrine/pseudoephedrine in allergy meds that get used to make meth.
Eventually, a drug like LL should become easier to get and much, much cheaper. But while that would be great for any of us who could benefit from having it with a quick trip to CVS and no prescription, the reality is that we'd make no money from our investment if LL wasn't first a prescription drug that was offered through our country's current physician-insurance framework.
It takes hundreds of millions, if not billions, along with many years of research and development efforts to get a drug to market and the best way to make that money back, and make a bunch of money to fund future indications/products, is to sell it at $8,000/treatment (or whatever) through insurance. The patient still typically pays only a reasonable amount but insurance or a government covers the rest. Cytodyn makes a bunch and smartly reinvests it, the stock goes through the roof, we all make f-you money, and then as patent life extensions finally wear thin it'll be available to the world in an easier and cheaper way.
But along the way we'll have LL Extended Release, LL Respimat Inhaler, LL syrup, LL for Lefties, LL+CBD Gummies, and a variety of other versions that allow us to extend our exclusivity.
There also remains a good reason to first bring a drug through the FDA's process and our current insurance model of healthcare. The FDA approval is both a rubber stamp that it's "safe" and also a way to ensure things are manufactured, marketed, and taken in a safe and trackable way. You won't have some shady company based in India (a huge generics market) making knockoff LL that has no active ingredient or contains filler compounds that are carcinogenic because they aren't regulated. We get regulation surrounding our drug (all drugs) and then as time goes one many of them can transition to over the counter when they're deemed safe and capable of being left in the hands of our unwashed masses. You have to be careful so dumbasses like justa on the other board don't accidentally overdose or kill themselves trying to make meth out of it.
In the end it still costs a good bit and requires highly technical capabilities to make LL, so I don't know if we'll ever see it priced and available like aspirin. But it should absolutely become less expensive and easier to get in the future. After we've all sprained our necks diving into our gold coins like Scrooge McDuck. Hmm, I wonder if LL can help a sprained neck muscle...
I hope that helps.
Respert