Posted by paulk on June 1, 2001, at 18:11:43
In reply to Re: to paulk touchee, posted by gilbert on May 30, 2001, at 22:04:20
>You make some very valid points and I am sure they are true as well but did you notice within the last 10 years how many drugstores are being built.
Yes – More Americans are taking more drugs. Many new drugs that are much improved (I take prylosec a MUCH improved antacit pill that is almost due to come out as a generic. I can fly down to Mexico and buy the same drug and my trip if I do it every three months).
> I am somewhat synical in that there seems to be such a humungous infusion of cash in the drug business.
Big business and big government are two sides of the same coin. It is the businesses themselves that ask for regulation to keep out competition. Yet we keep sending the same egomaniacs to Washington (both parties are dirty).
> Now I am not foolish enough to think that drug companies arent' doing research on new ssri's with dopamine antagonist properties or 5ht2 recepter blocking better than that loser serzone. But the bulk of drug company money being earned from overly patented overly priced drugs is not in research. Those 1000 of millions of dollars being spent on research....bahh humbug the majority of drug company money is spent on warm fuzzy marketing schemes and buying doctors dinner and vacations. I have friends who are drug reps....their lee way for expense accounts would make you cream your jeans,,,unless of course you were currently taking one of their drugs because then you couldn't cream your jeans.
I don’t know about their marketing –(I don’t watch TV – Rent a movie now and then.) All I know is 10 years and a billion dollars will keep competition and innovation from reaching our medicine cabinets.
>The annual budgets of drug companies are so heavy into the pushing side of the equation it isn't funny.
Of course it is on the pushing side – there is no competition that isn’t politically connected.>So yea there is research and yea there is new drugs coming but the effort is weak at best and the money grossly misused.
I would disagree that the effort is week – because of the FDA drugs that would have cost $.50/day cost $3-4/day. The researchers have to work extra hard because of the litigation and regulation. I have been told that many promising drugs don’t get fully evaluated because of litigation and regulation and the size of the patient population that may have use for the drug. Government is the problem – it is what created pharmaceuticals as big business and no one will fix it.> If the drug companies could get away with sending hookers into doctors offices they would.
Doesn’t that sounds like women manipulating men instead of the other way around?>Again I love your spirited response and am glad every body not only has their own opinion but is willing to respond with it....good luck
Maybe it’s me – I just don’t know of any guys that conspire to hurt women. Perhaps I hang out with a different crowd; mostly nerds and science types that the media would make fun of.
Here is one thing that I’m sure we can agree on: It has come to my attention that the FDA has agreed to let the drug companies omit information that you would expect to see in the PDR. (Big government in bed with big business) The drug companies agreed to present this information at medical conferences and talks if they could leave it out. With this development PDR becomes a legal document instead of a Reference (lets call it the PDL Periodical Drug Legalize). For instance, suppose a drug has a secondary dopamine effect, it may now be left out of the PDR if the FDA gives them the alternative to present it at a conference. The motivation escapes me at the moment (probably to help aoid litigation), but this slight-of-hand or omission of truth is not in our best interest. It can cause mistakes to be made by everyone from doctors to researchers.
poster:paulk
thread:64538
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010530/msgs/65096.html