Re:Drug research

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

You have opened up a conversation I have had with many others.

Drug companies are a business and like any other business they're main

goal is to make money...at least here in the USA. Research is

generally very expensive and time consuming. Quite often the drug

doesn't pan out--lots of money and time wasted--sometimes years and

millions of dollars. Sometimes a drug that doesn't pan out turns out

to have a different applicaton. I am thinking of the High blood

pressure drug that Phyzer nearly abandoned until they found it had

desirable side effects--it is now called Viagra. But that was just a

lucky break. More often than not it's back to the drawing board. To

make up the money spent on this research and development, drugs are

expensive. And once a drug is approved it must be prescribed and so

now the advertising comes in--more money spent. We in America call it

" free enterprise " . I do feel the tide is turning and we may go to

national health care. Once that happens, we may not see the drug

research that we now do. The incentive for profit is what churns the

research. So some may hate the drug companies, but without their

competition with each other new drugs will be slow in coming.

I know this is an unpopular stance. People who are sick feel they

are being taken advantage of. Are the new drugs coming out of the USA

or the Socialist countries?

As for preventive education, well we all know that overeating,

alcoholism, smoking and unsafe sex are unhealthy. But here in America

you can't force people to do what is healthy.

That's it for me.

Love,