Money, Corruption and Medicine – Who Has Our Back?

In that spirit, we strive to post things here on the blog that might help and uplift readers, rather than tear anyone or anything down. However, following a conversation with a very dear friend, there is something I wanted to post about. 

I have a not too distant relative who has been in radiology for years. He’s a remarkably bright man, and even before I knew Doug or any of the work that he has published, my relative used to often say, “Oh yea, they’ve found a cure for cancer. The pharmaceutical companies just don’t want anybody to know about it.” 

This sentiment is a common thread in health circles; when it comes to corporate America, you can bet that dollars will beat safe and effective, yet un-patentable, remedies every time. The dialogue can quickly devolve into conspiracy theory-like talk.

People generally want to assume that most people in the world are good people, and I would certainly contend that most people are. Most of us are regular folks, trying to get by and trying to help our loved ones do the same. However, an interesting thing has happened in America over the last three years. In 2008, the world’s financial systems experienced a violent shake, causing economic repercussions that are still being felt. Some even think that the worst is yet to come. And through this process, we’ve seen the seedy underbelly of Wall Street laid bare – the unscrupulous business practices, the deceit in dealings with customers, the wanton greed. We see a class of people who have rigged the system in their favor, whose greed ultimately destroyed a third of the world’s wealth, and whose sins have ultimately come back to haunt us. Not them specifically, of course – the banks and men who orchestrated this whole disaster have largely escaped so much as a slap on the wrist, all the while collecting their exorbitant salaries and million dollar plus bonuses.

Lay people like you and I wonder how something like this happens. We assume, perhaps naively, that the people in power over something as important as the economy and that control the wealth and retirement money of millions of people are responsible and have the best interest of humanity ultimately at heart, even if they are well compensated to do that. But if the last few years have proven anything, they have proven that money has the power to corrupt, and often when given the chance, someone will walk away with the loot at the expense of the people they were supposed to be working for. 

Friends, what if the same thing can be said of the pharmaceutical industry?

But surely, you may think, someone entrusted with something so gravely serious as the health of the population wouldn’t be driven to rig the system simply to inflate the bottom line! 

As the world’s markets are still fragile, the idea that pharmaceutical companies might pursue profits instead of cures, something that sounded like wild-eyed conspiracy nonsense, begins to sound slightly more reasonable.