There are various reasons for this. The most important ones are:
· Except in the USA and in Holland, where melatonin is classified as a nutritional supplement, hormones are considered in most industrialised countries as drugs, and are therefore subject to government controls. The terms and conditions for official registration and subsequent release on the open market are complicated and costly, and very often require time-consuming short- and long-term tests. As a natural substance, which is produced in abundance by any young body, melatonin cannot be patented and therefore the pharmaceutical industry is not interested in its commercialisation. Moreover, as a "low-cost product" it would directly compete with much more lucrative pharmaceutical products, for example sleeping aids and tranquillisers.
· An increase of average life expectancy by just ten years would create havoc with most European government old-age pension schemes, and immensely deepen the crisis they already find themselves in. As a matter of fact, twenty years hence, even the largest and wealthiest European countries might not be able to finance such a development. We can refer to the most recent report of the Swiss Federal Department for Home Affairs to the Federal Council of June 12, 1996. According to this report, the Swiss government pension fund expects a deficit of 13 billion Swiss Francs in the year 2010, calculated using today's average increase of population.
The only institutions which may benefit from the effects melatonin is supposed to have on elderly people are - besides the people themselves of course - private health insurance companies. However, whether these institutions will take any steps to change the current situation in the foreseeable future is doubtful.

We agree with Dr. William Regelson, who says in the introduction to his book:

"I am now seventy years old. To my surprise, I have suddenly become aware of my mortality. I cannot afford to wait another thirty years. I do not want to see how my creativity, my capability to enjoy the beauty of this earth and the sensual joy of my body are destroyed by a process, which our investigations have shown us to be reversible and avoidable."