Forum Post: To: Anonymous (Open-source cancer research info) Big Pharma....
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 2, 2011, 7:33 p.m. EST by pharmman
(1)
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I didn't know where to post so hopefully someone out there is listening. I just watched these talks and had a great idea, but you guys would be the only people I know who could make this a reality. Imagine an internet where all the information of major pharmaceutical companies became open source, especially the chemistry of compounds that are being used to try and cure cancer. This would be kinda like a wikileaks of information for big pharma. Imagine the justice and the type of collaboration that could arise from making this information available to the public for review and research. Just dreaming though........ ahhhh maybe some day. I also think it would be ethical, although I dont want to get into why right now. Occupy!!!!
Here are the talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/jay_bradner_open_source_cancer_research.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-11-01&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email http://www.ted.com/talks/yochai_benkler_on_the_new_open_source_economics.html
This is a good opportunity to explain how big industry has engineered regulation to their advantage. A completely legal way to manipulate a "free market" Whenever you bring a drug to market it has to go through three distinct phases that cost an enormous amount of money. This could and should be paid for by the regulating organization(FDA), however we have created a system where the industry foots the bill. This was done through industrial lobbyists for big pharma. A seemingly altruous move, right? We will pay for these drugs to come to market, and create regulation where it costs a horrendous amount of resources to insure that they are safe for our citizens? Well, my friend we have been fooled. Whey do you think that all small biotech startups have never brought a drug to market? The reason is, that because they cannot afford to pay for all these phases of trials, they have no choice but to sell to a bigger company that has the resources and the machinery to sell these drugs, at an exorbitant price, further increasing the profits of big pharma. A perfect example of corporatist trickery and effective political lobbying for the 1% who reap the benefits of this process.
Want to know something disgusting? Pharma takes taxpayer money every year for research and development programs. At the same time it spends tens of billions of profits on pure advertising, often for somewhat unnecessary drugs. The kicker? Those companies receive long patents on drugs that taxpayer money helped pay for, and turn around and charge medicare/medicaid beneficiaries full price for medications that there are no generic versions of. We are paying an industry to stab us in the face, and it needs to stop immediately
It would be wonderful to have all the pharmaceutical research that they spent millions on testing and developing, but the problem would still be the same. I mean sure everyone would have open access to new age medication, but the FDA would still not allow the product to be distributed and cost us millions of more dollars in research to met their standards for safe for human consumption.
Not all pharmaceutical companies are out to make blood money, most of them really what to change the world and make a difference, but are rapped by the FDA
First off you would have people trying to make up duplicate drugs and distributing them without the clean environment and people would start dying, because people are stupid like that. Then if there was a glut on the market the pharma companies would lose market share and would not continue to invest in new drugs if their research was freely disseminated. Then pharma would die. Not that i love them and think drugs should be cheaper but this idea would be insanity.