Check this out. I don’t know if this is true or not. Let’s hope that it is true. Now suppose that it is. There are those of you out there that are thinking, “well…if there’s no money in it for those greedy pharmaceutical companies, this will never make it to the market. So much for your laissez faire capitalism and its application to medical practice!” ”This represents a failure of the market and that is why we need government in charge of medicine!”
Sorry. If you are thinking that way you go to the back of the class. It is precisely a government institution (the FDA) that will keep this from reaching the market. It is also the practice of the government funding of medical research that has kept this from coming to light earlier. You think the FDA isn’t capable of corruption? Check this out. That they have been caught in this corruption scandal means that there are probably countless others that have escaped our attention.
Let’s hope this research is in fact true. You don’t think any money will change hands from the pharmaceutical industry to the FDA to influence whether this gets a fair hearing, do you? What may seem like market failures are actually government-induced distortions that doom legitimate research and new drug and device introduction to the marketplace. Right here in Oklahoma City, researchers have disccovered ear drops that can virtually eliminate noise-induced hearing loss if applied within 12 hours of the exposure. The FDA is requiring that the combination of drops be tested now, even though individually the drops have been proven safe. The researchers estimate that this will take 4 years. You don’t think that the FDA would hold the makers of hearing aids hostage with the possibility of an earlier release of these drops, do you?
If a government agency exists that can prevent newcomers from entering the marketplace or significantly increase the price of entry, that agency, or the people that run that agency will be” influenced” by those who benefit from barring the newcomer’s grand entrance. The folks running the agency, will, of course, be acting in our best interest, protecting us from the untested drugs or techniques!
Those of you who think that we need more government in medicine need to give this some thought.
G. Keith Smith, M.D.
Some chemistry professor at Cleveland State university discovered what could be a potential cure for certain forms of cancer, by accident. He tried applying to the NIH for funds, to no avail.
btw I’m starting a little hypothetical project of my own third party free health center, with transparent pricing for all services offered, with assistance for the poor as well as assistance in buying critical illness insurance in the event of a catastrophe (something truly budget busting). How does that soung
Comment by Kartik — January 5, 2012 @ 8:39 am