Thank you again for your open and intellectually honest approach, and also for
providing this forum!

I wasn’t offended; I understood the point.

And you make some good points. Big pharma is a catch-all phrase that doesn’t distinguish between companies and cultures, let alone individuals and their actions. It’s a convenient expression that I, for one, am guilty of using all the time.

Anyway, I don’t mean to suggest ‘big pharma’ is evil or there’s a black-and-white view to any of this. I’m simply trying, in my own way, to say that some of the criticism is justified and that remaining defensive doesn’t work as a strategy.

What you say about filling in the blank is certainly valid - there are other occupational groups or industries that have run into such quagmires. There are differences, too. If I make a mistake, I publicize it with a correction. No one wants others to ‘look under their hood,’ but my line of work seems to get its share of disinfectant.

As to Moore, I haven’t seen the film yet. And I deliberately didn’t say I agree with his point of view or not; I’ll wait to see the film.

Thanks for stopping by again and continuing the discussion. I enjoy the challenge and hope others do, too.

Cheers
ed

I did not mean to give offense, but just to point out that criticism, villification, and unpopularity are not necessarily directed where they’re not justified, or to a extent that’s justified. It’s perfectly possible to be unpopular and villified but having done nothing any worse than the usual run of human behavior.

So the first question should be whether villification is justified, and if so, how much. Has pharma done things that, in retrospect, look bad? Of course. Were they actually done with bad intentions? Maybe. It’s pretty easy to make someone’s actions look bad if half the population already assumes that that person has cloven hooves.

Try this as an exercise: replace “big pharma” with “journalists.” Have journalists made it easy for others to pull out long knives? Should they look in the mirror and ask why their industry is increasingly villified? Do they hide behind excuses? Do they espouse their role in bettering democracy, but repeatedly get taken to task for their business practices (fraudulent documents, photoshopped photos, naked but unspoken political bias) that seems to contradict that lofty goal? Of course, in each case. The same arguments obtain at least as well. Is villification justified?

Now let’s try “politicians,” “celebrities,” “sports figures,” and more topically, “environmental activists.” In each case, mutatis mutandis, the argument makes. So why does pharma receive such vituperation? Because they’re already unpopular, and therefore an easy target for demagogues such as the despicable Michael Moore, who makes no pretense of even-handedness.

Would you mind sharing some of those war stories?

Thanks for stopping by,

ed

Thanks for your note.

But you extrapolated my comment in ways that I didn’t intend nor do I think are correct.

Without getting into a morass of a philosophical discussion, I’m not writing about a popularity contest.

I’m writing about an industry that espouses the betterment of patients, but is repeatedly taken to task - and worse - over its business practices. And these practices often seem to contradict those lofty goals.

I am simply pointing out that change is needed, and not just for the sake of it, and certainly not for the sake of avoiding vilification. And that a sense of awareness would be useful.

As a member of the ancient Hebraic tribe, by the way, I am particularly sensitive to demonization and scapegoating. This was not my purpose in writing what I wrote.

Hope that helps, even a little.

ed

Or has industry made it easy for him - and other critics - to pull out the long knives? This requires a gamut of people …to look in the mirror and ask why their industry is increasingly villified.

So unpopularity necessarily has a just basis that the unpopular would do well to reflect on and change their ways?

Perhaps that should be pointed out to German Jews, if you can find any. Demonizing the unpopular is child’s play.

We are at a “show me” phase, not only in terms of new medications but fewer headlines (which are justified, in my view) of the Oxycontin / Zyprexa / etc. stuff. People are primed to believe corruption has become the norm, quite unlike 10 years ago. (Harris polls show this clearly.)

Time to work hard, be quiet, and show it in deeds, done and not done.