Big Pharma, I Thank You
After suffering miserably from a sinus infection for most of the last week, I'm up and about today, feeling, nearly, back to normal--only about 36 hours after starting a five-day course of Zithromax, one of the brand names under which the antibiotic azythromycin is sold. (After we finished recording the podcast this morning, I urged Rob, who, although on the other side of the continent has come down with the very same symptoms from which I was suffering, to mention Zithromax to a doc himself.)
Louis Pasteur, I find on poking around on the Internet, had some inkling as long ago as the eighteen-seventies that certain drugs could be used to inhibit the growth of bacteria, but it wasn't until 1932 that a team of scientists, working for the German pharmaceutical combine Bayer, figured out how to make the first antibiotic widely available. During the Second World War, antibiotics saved countless lives, and a new stream of such drugs continues to assist sufferers, such as yours truly, today.
You can't cook up antibiotics in your garage. To develop them, then manufacture them inexpensively enough to make them available to large populations, you need teams of scientists, industrial engineers, and marketers--the kinds of teams that exist at great big companies.
Big Pharma has its shortcomings, but it's worth remembering that it has alleviated human suffering in specific and tangible ways--ways that Big Government can scarcely match.
ObamaCare delenda est.
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Mar '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
George Savage
Consider also that most new and improved drugs are preferred over the products they replace. Not so with antibiotics. A superior Zithromax, uniquely, won't be used at all by most physicians. The new product will be reserved for rare resistant strains, lest indiscriminate use encourage development of widespread resistance to the new wonder drug.
Indeed, this is the paradox that will plague antibiotic development for a while: if too many circulating bacteria become antibiotic resistant, there will be a strong public health movement to limit the use of any newly-developed drugs, thus limiting potential profits.
Dr. Savage, do you see any way to make antibiotic development profitable for Big Pharma again, other than having the government bribe them to do it?
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Mendel
Dr. Savage, do you see any way to make antibiotic development profitable for Big Pharma again, other than having the government bribe them to do it? · Jan 13 at 6:45pm
How about starting an atibiotic's 20-year patent life from approval rather than invention? Another alternative would be to deny generic manufacturers right of reference to clinical data on new antibiotics. Therefore, the new generic supplier wouldn't be able to hit the market immediately on patent expiration without funding its own clinical studies.
The key is to extend the exclusivity period beyond the 6-8 years now typical for a new drug. Lower utilization would be an acceptable tradeoff for a product with a correspondingly longer period of market exclusivity. Likewise, the public won't benefit from an early generic on the market if the innovative product is never developed because of a poor payback profile.
Aug '10
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Bayer. German pharmaceutical company. 1930s.
Oooh... Awkward...
Apr '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Mr. Robinson: When azythromycin knocked out my sinus infection, it also knocked out my intestinal flora. If that happens to you (no need to mention it on the podcast, either way), forget yogurt--Go right to the intestinal release acidophilus pills. Trader Joe's has them at a reasonable price.
Jun '10
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
I have never understood, whether its pharmaceuticals or even literature, why government and other freeloaders feel it is greedy for the creators to actually profit from their inventions. But one thing is clear: less opportunity for profit, fewer new drugs (and other creative ventures).
The best general discussion of this issue (mostly in terms of literary copyrights) is Mark Helprin's Digital Barbarism. While its immediate subject is copyright, it is a brilliant discussion of modern culture and who should benefit from creating something of value.
Apr '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
The story of Bayer and the discovery of sulfa is told in a fascinating book, The Demon Under the Microscope, by Thomas Hager. It is a fascinating read. Along with the history of infectious disease, you learn about the origins of the word hysteria (hint: it has to do with women and their reproductive incubators).
Apr '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
May '10
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
I too benefitted from big pharmacy today. $3.50 for a generic on an HSA plan where I basically pay $1000/mo for a family and then pay everything else too unless something major happens. I don't know if Peter will see this but would love the Ricochet crew to explain the visceral objection to the individual mandate. Seems to me Republicans make a mistake treating healthcare like any other good or service. Healthcare is economically irrational. My dad is 90 and objectively can't do much anymore but do I want healthcare for him? YES! If it were my car I'd say junk it. Some will get hit by a car, some drop dead and others will slowly (and expensively) fade into that good night. Seems like everyone needs to be in the mix to balance it out. Otherwise we need ambulance drivers to do credit checks on the side of the road to see if you're good for it. Additionally what else can you buy an almost infinite amount of while unconscious (insert Charlie Sheen joke here) but that also seems to defy normal economic assumptions and markets.
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Incidentally, all of Team Ricochet has a runny nose. We're all complaining about this backstage. I reckon it's just a coincidence, but as a precaution, members may wish to wash their hands thoroughly after posting.
Jul '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Actually Claire they all need Peter's magic macrolide antibiotic. I saw Rob in the office today and was ready to give him a Kenalog shot for lingering inflammatory symptoms but then he mentioned that his friend Peter took azithromycin and told him that's what he needed. Well that just changed everything, boy howdy.
Jul '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Grendel, a reasonable approach for antibiotic associated diarrhea is Align, a brand name probiotic superior to acidophilus. There are many similar products. People should be aware of c-diff which is a nasty bug often produced by antibiotic use and produces a bloody diarrhea. This is increasing in frequency in hospitals and in the community.
Jul '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Thanking big pharma is akin to thanking wall st. Your 401 K plan may be better because of them but it doesn't mean they acted with morals that you can tell your children to emulate.
Jul '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
George Savage, I really like your patent idea on medications. A lengthy patent to provide a profit motive could easily be combined with removing the crony capitalism and occasional criminal behavior involved in every aspect of pharma from inception to patent end that occurs today. Other reasonable incentives could be applied for all pharma, big and small, brand and generic to change our current status quo which is as convoluted as our own medical system.
Apr '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Have you read From Here to Eternity? He seems muddled on the etymology of "freedom," but I always figured he was good on "hysteria" (although I've never bothered to specifically check).
Apr '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Fauna as well?
Jul '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
hippo.....phobia, "healthcare is economically irrational" is as good a statement as I have ever heard.
Apr '11
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
I assume you're speaking generically, since healthcare is obviously rational for young & viable adults, those who least need it, but have most interest in obtaining it when necessary.
But of course I'm using your statement merely to bring in a quote: "Gentlemen, I'm a stylist, and the greatest sentence in the English language is, "Have one on the house.""
(Don't remember the speaker, else I'd credit him.)
Dec '10
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
I do healthcare marketing for a living, and am only BARELY resisting the urge to share some info on a C-diff indicated drug on which I am working.
Why must I resist? Well, my work is not med-legal approved, yet. And I don't know the client that well, and if someone over there saw such a comment, then I could conceivably be in a world of regulatory hurt.
And that, right there, is another problem with Pharma: People get all peeved about how they market, and how much it costs, but the regulatory burdens on pharma speech-- especially digitally-- are enormous, and actually inhibit the propagation of useful and accurate information to the consumer. Enhancing such communication, btw, is supposed to be the FDA's raison d'etre.
Nice case study in the unintended consequences of government regulation.
May '10
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Read The Whole Thing (TM): OF MEN AND MICROBES: Understanding the human ecosystem. "The average human body is made up of trillions of cells. The average human body also houses about 10 times that number of bacterial cells. Scientists have been curious about our bacterial cohabitants since 1683, when Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, using a microscope he had built himself, examined his own dental plaque only to discover 'little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving.' But it has been only within the past few decades that scientists have begun to understand just how many varieties of bacteria live in or on our bodies. And now they increasingly suspect that many diseases are caused not by individual bacteria, but by the delicate interplay between multiple bacterial species and the human host."
Aug '10
Re: Big Pharma, I Thank You
Too ... much ... information ...