I worked for a research firm in the early seventies.  It loaded
up with overpaid, low productive people with doctorates.

It did not take long for it to fail,

I see no benefit to me in the TV advertising of
prescription drugs and  profits that are not
reinvested in the company  but paid as gross
excess salaries.

The wizard of Oz and so much more is skilled
fiction.

Did you ever work with some of the scientist
educated in the socialized countries.   I
have. Lots of fiction here..

As I tell so many,  It does not matter to me,
I will be long gone before the bubble
bursts   I do believe the clue is to treat all
fairly and expect to be treated fairly..
                                         Guy

You would not like my comments on Cuba and China.

All they need to do to get around that is to call it a food supplement
and sell it in the aisle where vitamins, minerals, and other
supplements are sold.

If it is OTC, all they have to do is call it a dietary supplement, and
ba boom, no regulation, no proof of efficacy needed.

Sleepy

------------------------------------------------------------------
It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
-George Santayana (1863-1952)
------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sorry I missed the beginnings of this. Just my disjointed two cents.

Business is in business to make money. The drug industry has, in the
past, worked with a much more demanding FDA and has still has made tons
of money.

If it was so hard to be in the drug business it wouldn't have grown into
the multibillion dollar industry it is today. The current FDA is staffed
by the industry and is pretty much a rubber stamp.

The advertising value of an FDA approval is a fantastic bargain. Thirty
million dollars is nothing when comparied to a national Ad campaign. Just
look at the cost of one Super Bowl Ad. Add to that the value of access to
the largest consumer base in the world provides and the cost is cheap.

All business is amoral and to expect them to police themselves is the
beginnings of a fantasy tale that will always become a nightmare. Look at
the media industry, for years they set and upheld the standards for
journalism taught at the top teir schools. Then along comes a Rupert
Murdock, who is completely profit driven, and soon we lost any
objectivity that was left. Look at tobacco, exploding Pintos, sidewall
blowouts, flammable dolls, lead paint and all the other products that
would still be sold if it were not for non industry controlled oversight
of some type.

Crying for any industry's plight is fairly foolish for a consumer these
days, particularly the drug industry.

Industry has more access and influence to our elected reps than we, the
voters/consumers, do. They have always played a large role in writing the
laws for their industries but today even the pretense of fair play is
gone.

The Madison avenue hype the drug industry is using to peddle their
particular brand of snake oil reminds me of the same tactics the TV
preachers use daily to extort a few bucks from folks who would be better
served buying a lotto ticket than some rediculous 'wealth prayer' or a
bobbleheaded Jesus doll so some fat preacher could get a new wing on his
castle sized home.

In today's world, American consumers are treading water in an ocean full
of industry sharks on a feeding frenzy who like all sharks are short
sighted and stupid animals content to feed until there is no prey left to
sustain their own lives.

For a few years greed was in check and we really seemed to get it right.
Industry hired workers, paid the well and the workers in turn brought the
products they made with pride.

Then the irrational protuberance found atop the neck of many a CEO
decided that shady accounting, wholesale firings, and overpriced, over
hyped shoddy products were the road to higher profits.

Sorry Dave, I don't feel an ounce of compassion for any industry on the
planet these days and in my experience giving business an inch takes a
mile away from labor and the consumer.

Gene, T2, Made in the USA