Doc Curtis chimes in on drug companies

Dear Editor,

I did appreciate the comments by Peter J. Pitts, President, Center for Medicine, in the October 14th issue of the PCN. It did help clarify some of the incredible obstacles, issues and expenses the drug companies are compelled to deal with in the research and development (R & D) of new and /or modified pharmaceutical and vaccine production. His points were valid, accurate and well stated. And while I have been turned out to pasture for a few years now there are a few other issues which are not as clear cut as those Mr. Pitts addressed but which can certainly impact the costs incurred in the R & D, as well as the distribution and use of such products.

I will admit that I have not gone into the nuances and statistic of which I speak, but will comment from my experience as a long-time client of numerous drug companies over the years.

The first issue can and will be colored by one’s opinions and disposition in regard to philanthropy, generosity, religion, politics and ‘give-away’ programs. But quite often drug companies will distribute, without cost to the recipients, thousands, tens of thousand of doses, pills, vaccines or treatments to usually indigenous peoples of underprivileged third world nations. Often people who are suffering endemic proportions from some specific disease. How each of us views such an act of gifting, donating, philanthropy, enabling or free-loading is each person’s determination. The bottom line is that someone pays for that medication.

An interesting point and one which many of the cattle producers of this area who were in business in the 1990’s will immediately recognize is how there can be such a wide disparity in the price in exactly the same product from one country to another. I am referring to the situation in the 1990’s where a cattle pour-on was available in Canada for considerably less than we could purchase it here in the United States. Many of our producers made the trip across the border to take advantage of the price discrepancy. Interestingly enough, within a few years the price structure reversed, the cost soaring in Canada, and dropping precipitously here, and truck-loads of the product were being delivered to the border from Billings and Great Falls to sell at considerable savings to the Canadian producers.

When I questioned the company representative he assured me that it was indeed, exactly the same product, coming out of the same spigot, at the same (off shore) point of production, the only difference being that the Canadian bound product had French as well as English on the label.

And lastly, and perhaps most tragically, when you hear a politician talking about “shutting down the government” please keep in mind that such an action has much more dire consequences than shutting the gate at the Lincoln Memorial. A considerable amount of money and manpower that goes into the R&D of pharmaceuticals is funded by the U.S. Government. One of the simplest reasons for this is that when we send our troops into foreign countries we are obligated to have them covered with the most advanced medical armor they will need to face and combat the disease situations to which they may or will be exposed. And bear in mind that there is no disease in the world more than thirty six hours away from Malta. Think Ebola.

And if the lab is shut down and the staff goes home the losses to research in time, development, data, and cure are incalculable. When the lights go out the viruses, the bacteria, the cancer cells, the DNA, the mice are vulnerable. Years of research can be lost when an incubator’s temperature is not monitored. A mouse runs out of water. A veritable lifetime of research can be lost and ‘the cure’ can be set back untold years within a few days of “Shut down”.

Just some idle thoughts of an idle fellow I thought I’d share with you.

Ol’ Doc Curtis

Malta