Call me cynical but.....I wonder what / who the drug companies have influenced and how

Drug companies spend thousands every year wining and dining doctors and other HCP's as well as sponsoring trials which are published so long as they support the drug company's product. They exist to make money for their shareholders not to benefit mankind ( unless that also benefits their shareholders).

 

So does Kerrygold.
Any company that exists not to make money usually has a very short run.

On the whole, a world without any medicines wouldn't be one I'd prefer to live in

 

Now I'm wondering if some of your own investments are in drugs companies lol ( not prying, just commenting )

 

Antibiotics, painkillers, anesthetic, vaccines, anitvirals, chemo therapy, insulin.........
I would have no issue in investing in drug companies.

 

You should have been there when the builders came around to bid on the contract to build the place initially!
You'd probably have driven away in a Jag to a holiday in the Seychelles.

 

How many of those were discovered by drugs companies?

 

That's not relevant, we still wouldn't have the benefit of them now if the drugs companies didn't continue to produce them.

 

Well, I guess you're bright enough to get your moldy bread out then?
And while I really sincerely hope you never, ever need it, good luck on finding your own isotopes, or anti aids retro virals, and milking your herd of pigs for insulin, or chewing a willow tree when you have a headache.
(Flush your aspirin now!)
Then you can really stand by your " nobler than thou" principles.
If you don't, no offense, but don't you think you'd be a complete sell out otherwise?

 

As usual you have attacked me rather than answered the question.
I have no problems with Pharma companies making money.
However they are not doing it for the greater good of the human race.
They have made relatively few discoveries but have indeed developed the discoveries of others with great profits for their shareholders and large salaries for their CEO's.
Insulin is a great example. So far as I know it was not patented by those who discovered its efficacy but instead Eli Lilley and Noro Nordisk took the discovery and tweaked it, mass produced it and made billions in profits from it. Was that really what Banting et al wanted?

 

No idea.
What did he do to distribute insulin to the masses?
Did he set up the labs, which "big pharma" did a torch and pitchfork job on?