Better living through pharmaceuticals!
She was talking to me.
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And perhaps hope you donât get sick enough to be grateful for something safer than your particular form of âsickâ.
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I see @Miss_belle was able to clarify. My question was also about ethical vs. ethnical, but itâs not all that important.
I think the findings regarding substance abuse, and other positive impacts on other health issues besides weight are certainly intriguing.
Our creed in the â70s.
Sobriety is for those who canât handle drugs
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The grafitti in a stall at my HS said âreality is for people who canât cope with drugs.â
I misremembered, ârealityâ is the correct word.
if you remember the â70s, you werenât there
I remember perhaps a bit too much from the 70s, but only bc I was too young to take drugs.
As a psych major, finding an on/off button, so to speak, for motivation is fascinating! Especially since Iâm not even sure there is a consistent understanding of motivation across different situations. I have always been intrigued by that, and itâs driven me to pursue what career I wanted. Not that I want humans to be guinea pigs, but there are some things that you canât learn about any other way.
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I find it fascinating how many of our desires/wants are entirely based on chemistry.
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Just to reiterate what @kobuta wrote - what is your âdistrust big pharmaâ based on ? There is a general fundamental issue (or many) with the US health care system which goes way beyond just pharma. Everything else about pharma (they have the cure for cancer but donât want to provide it to the public to make more money etc) are just conspiracy theories - provide us with some facts about evil pharma (sorry to be so direct but as somebody working in pharma/biotech I am so tired of the distrust pharma conspiracy people.
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Indeed. So much FUD.
I will say, however, that the negativity towards Big Pharma based on pricing (and profits), which has more to do with out patent system, and our healthcare (insurance) system as a whole, is somewhat valid.
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Our patent system is broken, but that one we canât blame this on them. 
Pharma absolutely fights for long patent protection periods because they need to recuperate the money (and I agree that sometimes they fight too hard and too long) that is used in R&D. But the myth that the US government funds much of the R&D cost - or funds a significant portion of it - is not true. Most people arenât aware of how long the process is to discovery of a potential medicine to taking it to market. Much of the US funding on research tends to be very early stage research, and rarely in the later stage research needed to get approval to come to market. Maybe folks wonder whatâs the difference; a huge difference when you realize that most âpromising researchâ never comes to fruition as an applicable medicine. A lot of early stage research happens at scientific and academic institutions, and not always in commercial pharma/biotech firms. The partnership that we saw with the US government and the COVID vaccine is highly unusual. When you pay for the cost of a medication, it does indeed pay also for the cost of all the failed drugs too.
Anyway â donât meant to digress into a pharma/biotech exploration. I think there are truly some instances of greed, but this is not because all pharma workers are villians, twirling their mustaches.
Indeed.
For every Ozempic or Viagra that make it to market, there are thousands that die on the vine.
And they die only after Big Pharma have shoveled millions (sometimes billions) trying to make them grow on the vine.
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I donât think also this is an US specific problem as the patent system is relatively similar worldwide and pharma is trying to extend patent protection everywhere (and it is an interesting discussion what is âreasonable â and what not). The big difference of the US system and rest of the world wrt health care cost is more towards insurance costs for doctors/hospitals (as law suits are way too frequent and easy in the US) and the way how drugs are priced (and the lack of involvement by the government compared to the European system - we have seen with insulin how that can actually change once the government gets involved)
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I didnât mean to disparage pharmaceutical workers, just the higher ups/CEOâs. I donât read medical journals, conspiracy theory websites etc. I just try to use a little common sense. It does stand to reason(for me anyway) that someone should have found a cure for cancer by now. And that maybe BP put a lid on it because thereâs so much money involved in the treatment of cancer. BUT the one hole in my personal theory is an old Ben Franklin saying:
âThree people can keep a secret if two of them are dead.â
So there you have it.
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They are no different hard working than other people in the pharma industry. No idea (and no reason) to think they arenât also interested to cure diseases
Sorry but that it classical conspiracy talk from people who have obviously no idea how cancer âworksâ - I donât want even start that there is no âtheâ cancer (and that every cancer is very different which mutations and pathways are up or down-regulated)
I highly recommend that you read some basic biology/cancer book to understand even basics of cancer biology and get an idea why finding a âcureâ for any cancer is nearly impossible.
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To bring this somewhat back on topic, I am still curious about the effect these meds seem to have on cravings for things other than food. My friend, who started on one of these drugs 5 months ago lost 60 lbs, but also pretty much any desire to drink alcohol.
As someone who enjoys both food and booze, I wonder what life would be like without cravings.
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I was enjoying the World Series tonight until Pfizer and Moderna advertised their latest Covid-19 vaccine. Three years later. Anything to make a buck.
The vaccines help prevent worse outcomes.
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