Big Pharma Speaks, Should We Listen?
– By Ed Kociela –
I have never had a warm feeling for Big Pharma.
Whether peddling generic aspirin for pennies a pill or marketing Zolgensma, a drug recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat a rare disease in infants called spinal muscular atrophy that goes for $2.125 million for a single dose that researchers say can cure the disease, they are looking at one thing only: the profit margin.
I understand that developing medications can be a costly endeavor, but the real expense before Big Pharma is the amount they pay for marketing and sales, which is substantially more than they spend on research and development.
That’s why I eye the words of a couple of Big Pharma honchos suspiciously when they thump their chests and say that we are about to turn the corner on this COVID nightmare.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told George Stephanopoulos “…within a year, I think we will be able to come back to normal life.”
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel agreed. “Enough doses (of the COVID vaccine) should
be available by the middle of next year so that everyone on this Earth can be vaccinated.”
Both pretty much agreed that they believe yearly boosters will become a way of life.
It may sound encouraging, but weren’t we supposed to be at that point already? Wasn’t everybody supposed to have their vaccination by now?
And, even though doses may be available for everybody, how long will the diehards who, for whatever reason, refuse to take their medicine? Do we have to wait for all of the unvaccinated to succumb to COVID before we can feel truly safe? If that’s the case I’m all for Big Pharma spending some of that dough to research a shot or pill that would eliminate stupidity. The downside, of course, is that it would probably cost so much that insurers would refuse to cover it.
I trust the scientists, the researchers, the brains behind medications that have saved our lives. I do not trust, however, Big Pharma CEOs who insist on blowing billions for cutesy Viagra commercials, catchy Lipitor ads, and spots for stuff we can’t pronounce that trigger a demand from patients that doctors, afraid of lawsuits if they do not prescribe what their patients request, cave in and write. Then, we have the pill pushers who are in the pocket of Big Pharma and write prescriptions for everything from a hangnail to a hangover. This also does not include the shocking $306 million the industry spent last year in lobbying efforts that bought it more cushy handling by Congress. That is the most lobbying money, by the way, pushed to the piggies we elected. No other industry comes close in how much it pays off Congress. And, that money goes both ways, landing in the coffers of Democrats and Republicans alike. It is likely the only example of bipartisan action we are likely to see in this day and age.
There is, of course, an easy solution, one offered from my little corner of the world many times and that is to ban all advertising for all prescription drugs, limit the write-offs for marketing and sales, and pass legislation that would restrict lobbying expenditures. Billions would be saved with Big Pharma still having a sizable, handsome profit without gouging people whose lives depend on these medications.
There are people out there who are cutting their daily maintenance meds in half to stretch the dollar, but while it may save a few bucks, it cuts the efficacy of their meds. There are also many who, if fortunate to live near the border, find themselves slipping into Mexico or Canada to buy their meds. The medications are just as safe and effective, but strict government price controls in Canada and cheap labor rates in Mexico, drive the prices down.
On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk learned that his polio vaccine was declared safe and effective. Salk, however, refused to patent or profit from the medication. He believed that the millions of dollars he would have been legally and morally entitled to receive would inhibit the global distribution of the drug. Salk chose to save lives rather than make a buck off of other people’s misery. He became a most-outspoken advocate for mandatory vaccination and believed it was a “moral commitment” for children to be inoculated against disease.
And, it worked.
But, Salk was not a CEO of a Big Pharma outfit. He was a researcher, a virologist who labored for years to develop the vaccine. He scraped together money or his research from grants and the March of Dimes and worked day and night to find a way to save young lives. The Salk Vaccine is still on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines and has saved countless lives.
Back then we didn’t have the showboating and grandstanding like we do today. We didn’t have the huge lobbying or marketing or sales campaigns like we do today. We simply had a need for good research to provide good medicine.
I really don’t care what Bourla or Bancel have to say. It will be all spin anyway, no matter how many monuments they try to build for themselves. They are company cheerleaders. All I really care about is that we have the meds to prevent further death and suffering and that the diehards who refuse vaccination come to their senses and realize that whatever beef they have with the government is separate from proven science and research, that refusing to vaccinate is not a protest against government, that, instead, it is a slap to humanity.
I can’t think of a soul that wouldn’t love to see an end to the COVID pandemic. It has taken more than 18 months of our lives and shattered them into a millions of pieces that can never be put back together. It has taken so many lives, cost us so much economically, and shattered us emotionally as much as it has physically.
That’s why when it comes to predictions about driving away COVID, I would rather hear them from men of science, not some suit trying to secure his annual bonus.
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