Have you seen the pharma ad that says

todays drugs pay for tomorrow's cures?

In truth, it should say --

Today's ripoff of Americans, pays for the rest of the world's cheaper drugs.

I think we ought to start funding drug research through the NIH exclusively. Goodbye blood money for big drugs.

drug research is *not* cheap. The resources put into the development of one drug can run millions or tens of millions of dollars.

It's a catch-22 - without the motivation of potentially big profits, drug companies won't spend billions on research. Without the research, and with funding through the NIH alone, we can't expect the same level of progress shown in recent years.

Damned if you do; damned if you don't.

including R&D...

There is way too much money and way too many conservatives in this country for that to happen any time in the foreseeable future.

Unfortunately.

and it about triage-- how do we use brainpower and research money to address public health issues.

In essence, every dollar spent on botox and yet another viagra clone robs the research money and time from a cure for Aids, diabetes, and other diseases of the non rich.

Yay for the free market approach to medicine.

pushing more purple pills.

All the advancements in insulin in the past decade originated overseas--and there have been tremendous advancements.

Or capitalism. Us chemists are just trying to make a living so we can afford decent health care.

Chemists aren't raking in record profits. They're not writing the ads. They're not out selling the drugs. They're not buying boats and vacation homes with the huge salaries like those raked in by the CEOs.

Hell, the chemists might be the only ones actually interested in helping society!

the "purple pill" one a day.

They can't be bothered with researching improvements in diabetes, cancer, AIDS, or heart disease.

And they are heavily funding and fronting the anti-stem-cell research orgs, I'm pretty sure, since stemm-cell treatment would cut into profits ENORMOUSLY.

I spend over 2,000 dollars a year to treat my diabetes, and I HAVE insurance.

No violins here.

Tons and tons of money is spent on heart disease, cancer, and diabetes research. The strides made in cancer treatments over the past decade alone are staggering. Survival rates have increased dramatically.

AIDS is another story. The social stigma still makes it very difficult to secure funding, which is part of the reason the AIDS drugs are ludicrously expensive.

Regarding stem-cell research, I think you're missing the obvious. Drug companies should be FOR stem-cell research, because it could lead to a "miracle" drug for cancer, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer's, etc., etc.

Those "miracle" drugs could make them a boatload of money. Many of the big pharm corps are behind pro-stem-cell research organizations for that very reason.

Much of that expense is usually tax deductible- though since pharma refuses to open its books to public scrutiny, we don't even really know how much they spend on R & D or what % is deductible.

This is the Big Lie of pharma- don't give them a free pass on this.


http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7065

pharma companies should be advertising, and it's expensive advertising on TV. Only the doctors and pharmacies really need to know about these new drugs and that's why they have drug salesmen. The expense of these ads are passed on to those people who are least able to afford them, the sick and the elderly. There used to be a law against it. :-(

:thumbsup:

out of my ZOMAX coffee cup.

It was the after anaphylaxis analagesic.

erectile dysfunction ads. :puke:

Ugh.

It takes ten to thirty years, and on average (last estimate I heard) about three billion dollars. This is before human testing and it might end up being unsafe for consumers.

Now, I'd be perfectly happy with socializing the whole thing. But everytime the government pays for scientific research a bunch of people whine about how their tax dollars should be going to something more important, like helping the poor, or the war in Iraq. So if you're not willing to pay for it with taxes, then you better be willing to put up with annoying commercials.

As for myself, I'm currently working on the synthesis of an AIDS drug, and a cancer drug, but I have to TA because we haven't got enough grant money. Just thought I should mention any potential conflicts of interest.