I'm tired of theBS about how Big Pharma has to make a killing off of

[mudplanet]

people's suffering in order to be able to invest in research to find new drugs.

In the last two days alone the most important news I've read (despite the election) has been how scientists in England and Australia have made new breakthroughs in understanding how cancer and the common cold can be beaten.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/killer-protein-find-may-be-cancer-breakthrough-20101101-179f7.html

http://www.medimise.com/medical-research/cambridge-scientists-close-to-curing-the-common-cold-and-winter-vomiting-bug

It seems that the countries with good public health programs and strong govt controls on drug prices are also the ones doing the pure research and making the breakthroughs while US Pharma spends its ill gotten gains on new ways to make money.

I mean, I guess I appreciate that they have a brand new expensive drug that specifically makes my eyelashes grow (accompanied by a multi-million dollar television advertising campaign to get people to buy it), but I would much more appreciate having that research money channeled into understanding how cancer works so that it can be beaten.

[ingac70]

1. That drug that makes eyelashes grow...

isn't brand new, and if it is used for its intended purpose (eye drops for glaucoma), it isn't expensive either. ;)

The eyelash growth was a side effect. No shit.

[mudplanet]

2. I wonder if its efficacy for treatment of glaucoma is affected if you've

already been using it to make your eyelashes grow. "Well, we could have reversed your glaucoma with this drug but because you used it when you were younger to make your eyelashes grow it won't really work for you."

I mean, I'd appreciate a once-a-day pill that both gives me an erection and makes hair grow on top of my head, but it ain't a priority.

[SPedigrees]

3. Big Pharma has zero interest in development of a cancer cure.

They make a killing off chemotherapy drugs and keeping cancer patients sick. Don't expect them to abandon this gold mine anytime soon.

[trotsky]

4. You do realize that chemo has beaten cancer in many people, right?

Many common cancers now have survival rates in the 80-90% range thanks to EVUL BIG PHARMA and their horrible drugs.

[evirus]

6. Bull!

a better profit can be made by selling homeopathic treatments or other brands of "alternative medicine" they are frequqnetly advertised to skirt around FDA regulations regarding testing their claims, and the display of side effects, and base their entire sales pitch on unscientific testimonials, misleading claims about biology(if not entirely false)and quote minning real studies to chary pick the sentences that support their claim.

in real medicine, ie "Big Pharma" you actually have to perform medical trials and demonstrate that the treatments works better than no treatment and a fake treatment, before even being considered appropriate for actually medical use, and that costs a ton of money.

in regards to fighting cancer and the cold, the reason why it's taking so long is because cancer has many different types and origins, the cold can rapidly change it's antigens, the thing that antibodies latch onto, to the point that any attempt at vaccinations will be nearly worthless.

[irislake]

7. Big Pharma's medical trials are often questionable.

[evirus]

9. how so?

just because you say it, doesn't make it so. and just because people have made "big pharma" the fall guy for societies ills doesn't mean they are guilty by default.

[irislake]

12. There are oodles of books written about the tricks Big Pharma

gets up to to get questionable drugs approved, then flog them, and if they turn out to be dangerous, even deadly, they hush it up for as long as they can.

They are so bloody corrupt. Take the SSRI drugs that are no better than placebos & have dangerous side effects. Two top Harvard psychiatrists were pushing SSRI's onto younger and younger children and when their conflicts of interest were exposed (getting millions from Big Pharma) Harvard sympathized.
Cuz Harvard gets lottsa money from them too!

Please! They `should use their advertising and bribery money to develop new drugs. Never mind the articles they pay doctors to `ghost write for the medical journals, which are also corrupt now.

[CatsDogsBabies]

5. I also know that eyelash medication

is used for people who have had chemotherapy. I believe there is a new one coming out, and there are clinical trials recruiting people who have had chemotherapy. I have had chemotherapy and lost my eyelashes. They have since grown back but they are thinner than they were before. Not having eyelashes tends to make a person look sickly, so I can see why some people might want to increase their eyelash volume. Of course, the ads will never say anything about chemotherapy or other reasons that cause people to have thin lashes.

And, as another poster has pointed out, chemotherapy has saved many lives.

[irislake]

8. Saved?

Or put patients into remission? After 8 chem treatments I am in remission but ....

Still I'm happy to be in remission after having cancer in liver, lungs, bones etc. Any extra time is great. Obviously the chemo helped me but I don't trust Big Pharma at all at all at all.

[CatsDogsBabies]

11. Some chemotherapy is for curative intent

and has been part of successful curative therapy. Think of someone like Lance Armstrong, who had advanced testicular cancer in his abdomen, lungs and brain. I don't know what the recurrence timeline is for that cancer but I think it has been close to 15 years for him. My chemotherapy was curative in intent, and I hope that if I needed it, that it worked. At the time that I had my 8 chemotherapy treatments, all diagnostic tests (mri/pet/ct) showed no disease. But, there could have been microscopic cells somewhere, hence the chemotherapy. I was also blasted with radiation. Cancer treatment has a long way to go, even if it is improving.

Good luck with your remission, I hope it is longlasting.

[irislake]

13. Thank-you!

You too.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. Let us know if your eyelashes reach 12 inches or more, that would

be a hoot.