We all hear from
news, social media how bad and inhumane the pharmaceutical companies
are. From trials on people in China and animals, gossips of cure for
cancer being hidden away from us, tells about the “it is better to
make them cure for the long time rather than with two pills” and
how it makes those corporations earn more and more on our suffering.
Saying bad things about pharmaceutical companies seems to be a
fashion for many years. Now, we see how dangerous it might have been
with whole anti-vaccination movements. So lets take a look on the
other side of the coin and see if “Big Pharma” might be doing
something good for us all.
I am not the only
one seeing how overly criticized the pharmaceutical industry is. John
LeMattina has wrote for Forbes a fantastic article that I highly
recommend to everyone. Did you know that the most generous companies
in America are pharma companies? Probably not. Yet, they don’t stop
on donations. Great example is an HPV vaccination program for
cervical cancer in Rwanda. But how did the crowd reacted? Merck, the
company responsible for this program was to be suspected of simply
trying to make a new market for themselves and dominate Rwanda
vaccination market. At the same time, Merck is one of partners in
fight for eradicating river blindness in Africa. The WHO estimated
that 40,000 cases are prevented because of that. Not in total but
EACH YEAR. And this is just one of many companies trying to fight for
better future of our species. And the doom of the worst of bacterias,
parasites and viruses.
Lets look at other
example. NTD. It is not any organization, nor company. It is an
acronym for Neglected Tropical Diseases. One of them is
dracunculiasis. All you need to do to get this little monster it to
drink contaminated water. Some time later, you have a one meter long
worm that needs to be removed from your leg. Horrible, isn’t it? In
1985 there were 3500000 cases of this dracunculiasis. In 2015? Only
22. And who defeated this tropical monster? You guessed it,
pharmaceutical companies. Governments and health organizations
couldn’t do it by themselves. The biggest health project in history
of mankind to eradicate 20 of those NTD. In 2015 the drugs they gave
FOR FREE provided treatments reached more people then the population
of EU and USA combined.
Bad things were done
and will be done by pharmaceutical companies. But the good deeds are
done by them every year, even if they don’t get so much media
attention as even they slightest mistake on their part.
1. Why do you think
people hate pharmaceutical companies so much?
2. What is your opinion on such big scale health operations aiming to eradicate some of the worst diseases from our planet?
2. What is your opinion on such big scale health operations aiming to eradicate some of the worst diseases from our planet?
3. What is your
personal opinion on pharmaceutical industry?
Source:
Comments
Also what about this "delayed cure invention"? As I know many people in pharmaceutical companies I know that cure for any form of cancer is considered a holly grail and an golden egg. It gives fame and money, whoever is first to find it.
In my opinion, eradicating some of the illnesses on a large scale is of great use. All humans around the world need to help each other to help and cure patients, pharmaceutical companies should spend part of their revenues on providing services to poorer countries, or part of their time for ongoing treatment and eradication Disease.
In my opinion, pharmaceutical companies are an integral part of human security. We all need medication to treat our illness, and pharmaceutical companies help health and longevity by researching diseases and providing therapeutic or medicinal methods.
2. I believe that such initiatives are very necessary.
3. In my opinion, pharmaceutical companies should be more closely monitored by medical institutions. Each drug should be tested to detect side effects. I also think that advertising for drugs should explain their action more and not present drugs as magic pills that are a solution to any pain.
I am glad that pharmaceutical companies are not indifferent to the fate of people who can not take care of their health to the best of their ability. Because as far as I understand, people in Africa suffer from such a terrible disease because they drink dirty water. But how many other microbes enter the body? why not finance an African water supply?
My positive, I have not come across medication other than flu. And of course, I am glad that I exist, vaccinations against various serious diseases that are made in childhood.
I do not know what to say to the second question because I have never been interested in this topic.
Big scale operations like this are, of course, always a good thing. There's not much to be said here - almost everyone can agree that getting rid of diseases is a positive thing.
As for how I personally think about the pharmaceutical industry, I think that most of the industry is completely fine - many of the pharmaceutical companies are a huge help for many people, and the medicine they provide saves lives. However, certain companies abuse the fact that they have exclusive rights to a certain medicine to drive the prices up to insane levels even though the medicine is cheap to make.
And I know that those companies are actually very closely monitored. I know people who work in them. There is so many steps when testing new drugs that it is hard to count them all.
Of course, this is primitive logic. It is impossible to deny that there are many scientists who are desperately want to fight with diseases. Such talented people should be encouraged in every possible way because they save our lives.
I do not have a specific opinion about pharmaceutical companies. I prefer not to think about them.
Well their whole business model relies on us getting sick/ bad stuff happening to us, u never see a sick person go "yay im gonna see a doctor and then take more pills"
When it comes to any big scale efforts in eradication of diseases, people are always skeptical since on business will kill itself on their own, u wont see an anti cold pharma researching cure for cold would u ?
My personal opinion is "Cure those diseases which lead to deaths and make sick's people lives miserable, make money and never attempt curing on those annoying ones but non lethal"
I was amazed when I heard about this operation. Faith in humanity restored!
I belive that pharmaceutical industry helps us a lot by making medicines and stuff like that (of course!). And it's really hard for me to complain about the industry when I dont have any idea about it.