tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post5136861350681505191..comments2024-01-25T13:46:11.967-06:00Comments on The Bronze Blog: Doggerel #130: "The Corporations!"Ryan Michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14750814560493466382noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-65077600015967329122008-03-02T19:07:00.000-06:002008-03-02T19:07:00.000-06:00Yeah I agree. Now corporations don't get a free p...Yeah I agree. Now corporations don't get a free pass. Its true that aside from not wanting to fund certain research that they are afraid of (tobacco companies come to mind), there's the issue of their insulting and sometimes outright deceptive advertising of their own drugs. This should be watched for and punished when it's found out.<BR/><BR/>However, the point is there ARE watchgroups constantly making sure companies don't get away with a lot. Tobacco companies may not have done the research on their products, but it was done, and everyone knows exactly what that product does to someone's health now. If a company releases a product that does nothing, they get attacked for it. It's the whole reason there's an FDA. I do think that their commercials should be more strictly regulated, but the point is THEY don't get off the hook most of the time.<BR/><BR/>Alternate medicince practitioners, on the other hand, can generally do whatever they want short of directly killing large numbers of people and seem to get a free pass due to tricky labels of their stuff to loophole their way out of responsibility.<BR/><BR/>It's not like it's a bunch of big guys attacking some small branches here either. "Alternate medicine" is big business as much as the legitimate kind is, and there's huge corporations on that side too.<BR/><BR/>It's for those reasons they need to get the greater focus now. When they are as strictly regulated with the same expectations, legally, as legitimate medicine, there won't be an issue. Mind you, there won't be any more alternative medicine either. Well, not as it stands. It'll have to be marketted with full disclosure and purely for entertainment value, like the value I might get out of buying a "dream catcher", for decoration rather than nightmare prevention.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-64900630993987205502008-03-02T18:46:00.000-06:002008-03-02T18:46:00.000-06:00Hence we support continual improvement in regulati...Hence we support continual improvement in regulation. There is a big difference in scale, though: The pharmaceutical companies have been known to produce good products. Alties haven't done a damn thing.<BR/><BR/>I tend to focus on alties, because they typically support a culture of authoritarianism: Their gurus are given free passes. I think fighting that particular evil is the first step before I take lessons in analyzing the subtleties.Bronze Doghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10938257296504189967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-25950917890925580862008-03-02T18:24:00.000-06:002008-03-02T18:24:00.000-06:00The recent studyshowing the “file drawer effect” a...The <A HREF="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3434486.ece" REL="nofollow">recent study</A><BR/>showing the “file drawer effect” at work in antidepressant studies shows that corporations can impact on good science in more subtle ways than through outright fraud. <BR/><BR/>The paper found that where analysis of results includes those from unpublished studies (obtained under Freedom of Information legislation), antidepressants are no better than placebo for mild to moderate depression.<BR/><BR/>Big money can distort science through the effect on what research gets funded, what questions are asked and what gets published. Given the billions of dollars involved in the industry, I think the critical eye of skepticism should be focussed on “Big Pharma” as much as it is on the alties.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13030925.post-42848682828089200402007-11-09T09:16:00.000-06:002007-11-09T09:16:00.000-06:00This is kinda like the whole global conspiracy thi...This is kinda like the whole global conspiracy thing.<BR/><BR/>I have a mate who believes in the whole "everything is run by a secret cartel of corporations."<BR/><BR/>To which I usually answer, "Where is this cartel, and how do I join?"Dikkiihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07897381809885423712noreply@blogger.com