Big Pharma, Meet Big Media

[Big_Bill]

Are you liberal screwballs for real, or do you just post to see your words in print ?

That immoral and unethical Pharmaceutical Company's has added many years to those with Aids, Cancer and Heart Disease, not to mention the other diseases and ailments that they have discovered treatment for.

Why don't you screwballs just put these unethical and immoral companies out of business, by refusing to use any of their products ?

As for Research, thousands of compounds are tried for treatment of a disease, hundreds of thousands of tests are conducted on each compound. Those that show promise continue to be tested, eventually an animals, that I agree with you should not die to save many in our society, then they proceed to human testing where the efficacy of the drug is calculated, and the side effects on humans are learned. And if they pass these tests they proceed to larger human testing.

And as side effects are your problem, there are many products in nature that produce side effects on many humans, peanuts, tomatoes, strawberries, wheat, etc. Some even kill !

Yes show those Pharmaceutical Companies you will not support them, stop taking your drugs, even those little blue pills, shut down their cash !

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by Big_Bill

Are you liberal screwballs for real, or do you just post to see your words in print ?

That immoral and unethical Pharmaceutical Company's has added many years to those with Aids, Cancer and Heart Disease, not to mention the other diseases and ailments that they have discovered treatment for.

Why don't you screwballs just put these unethical and immoral companies out of business, by refusing to use any of their products ?

As for Research, thousands of compounds are tried for treatment of a disease, hundreds of thousands of tests are conducted on each compound. Those that show promise continue to be tested, eventually an animals, that I agree with you should not die to save many in our society, then they proceed to human testing where the efficacy of the drug is calculated, and the side effects on humans are learned. And if they pass these tests they proceed to larger human testing.

And as side effects are your problem, there are many products in nature that produce side effects on many humans, peanuts, tomatoes, strawberries, wheat, etc. Some even kill !

Yes show those Pharmaceutical Companies you will not support them, stop taking your drugs, even those little blue pills, shut down their cash !

Am I to understand that you're OK with their business practices?

[Big_Bill]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Am I to understand that you're OK with their business practices?

There are many Pharmaceutical Companies, and I am sure that not all of them are objectionable.

But I do understand that if I spent millions of dollars to develop a product that I would want to advertise it before I lost my patent and or exclusivity of the product.

No finn, I do not approve of all the practices of some of the Pharmaceutical Companies, if I knew all of the practices of every company, I may not agree with them either.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Big_Bill

But I do understand that if I spent millions of dollars to develop a product that I would want to advertise it before I lost my patent and or exclusivity of the product.

Not to say that pharmaceutical manufacturers do no research but most of the real research is done by the NIH, CDC and American universities (with government funding). Much of the research that pharma does is figuring out how to change one molecule or one ingredient in a particular product, without materially affecting its efficacy, so that they can get a patent on a "new" drug. They do this when the patent on one of their drugs is about to expire or when they want to cut into the market share of a competitor with a "hot" new drug.

John

[BlueStreak]

Saw a very interesting documentary recently wherein they interviewed former GSK employees in Britain, including the "whistleblower" in this case.

It seems management tried to introduce incentive for reseachers to "create new drugs" at an accelerated pace. You see, the old, heavily regulated bureaucracy method wherein the drugs had to be approved by internal regulators as well as government regulators and had to actually have a proven purpose was keeping the profit margin too thin to keep the shareholders happy. Slowing down the process, as it were.

So, the boardroom geniuses hatched a plan to eliminate the internal bureaucracy and form teams of researchers tasked with specific diseases/conditions to cure. When a team acheived it's goal, cured a disease and the British government approved it for use, everyone on that team would recieve a fat bonus. The team them moves on to the next disease. Sounds great, Huh?

Unless, of course your team was tasked with curing something for which there still is no cure, twenty years later and, unfortunately, probably never will be. Like diseases and conditions attributed to advanced age for instance.

Or, you run out of diseases to cure.......

Then you start "inventing diseases" to market the useless drugs that were created along the way, rather than scrap them and take the loss.

You see, Her Majesties government, (And I think it is the same for the FDA.) only tests drugs to see if they can be used safely at moderate usage levels, not to see if they actually do what the manufacturer claims..........

Hence the mess we have today.

As I recall, one of the quotes was something along the lines of, "Aspirin is a great drug. But everybody makes it so the margin is very thin. In order to make the most money you have rush a new drug through and be the first to market with the latest thing. You worry about whether it actually works or not, later on."

Great, Huh?

Dave

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Not to say that pharmaceutical manufacturers do no research but most of the real research is done by the NIH, CDC and American universities (with government funding). Much of the research that pharma does is figuring out how to change one molecule or one ingredient in a particular product, without materially affecting its efficacy, so that they can get a patent on a "new" drug. They do this when the patent on one of their drugs is about to expire or when they want to cut into the market share of a competitor with a "hot" new drug.

John

Yep, that is exactly right.

Dave

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by Big_Bill

There are many Pharmaceutical Companies, and I am sure that not all of them are objectionable.

You would be wrong Bill.

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Not to say that pharmaceutical manufacturers do no research but most of the real research is done by the NIH, CDC and American universities (with government funding). Much of the research that pharma does is figuring out how to change one molecule or one ingredient in a particular product, without materially affecting its efficacy, so that they can get a patent on a "new" drug. They do this when the patent on one of their drugs is about to expire or when they want to cut into the market share of a competitor with a "hot" new drug.

John

Even more common and without cost is to take two drugs with expired patents and put them in one and get a new patent. Doctors just go along and prescribe the new one instead of the two old ones.

[Oerets]

Pharmaceutical Company CEO's have a special space saved for them down below when they get there.

I just went through a manufactured shortage by them because the drug is now generic. Pushed the new BIG BUCKS $$$$$ drug but I didn't bite.


Barney

[d-ray657]

I'm sure that there are lots of people who work for the drug companies that really want to improve people's lives. Many of them were probably started with that in mind. However, modern capitalism is such a corrupting influence that it can overwhelm the good that companies do. When the ultimate goal is maximizing profits, other laudable goals fall by the wayside. When the company places a priority on making a new patent rather than making a new drug, it is no longer in the business of improving lives, it is in the business of making money.

Regards,

D-Ray