Posted by Dinah on December 31, 2011, at 11:35:13
In reply to Re: Do any meds work or a fallacy for big pharm?, posted by poser938 on December 31, 2011, at 0:42:35
> one thing for sure is that any drug companies first priority is to make money... not to actually help people.
Well, different people within the companies might have different arrangement of priorities. But isn't it conceivable that their overall goal is to make money by providing pharmaceuticals that are helpful to people?
Many leaders feel as strongly about providing a good service (sometimes also at a reasonable cost, sometimes not) as they do about making indecent amounts of money. And sometimes they go hand in hand. My husband and I thoroughly enjoy the recent Dominos commercials and they've sparked interesting dinnertime conversations.
Making money isn't a bad thing. It takes money to fund research, give a decent return to people so they will invest in corporate ownership, and attract good personnel.
They definitely are not charities, though. And I suppose they do have strong motivations for hiding problems in their products and maximizing the positives.
Probably more intense scrutiny needs to be paid to their studies, and I would be in favor of the FDA requiring studies be performed by independent testers who are not informed of the maker of the product being tested.
In fact, that seems like a reasonable and achievable goal to press our government for. An independent group of testers licensed by the government and held to certain standards in product testing. And who are given products to test without being informed of the manufacturer, and with no communication being allowed between tester and manufacturer.
poster:Dinah
thread:1005651
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20111226/msgs/1006011.html