This book was interesting!

This book actually defends pharmaceutical companies. They blame the problems in the industry on government regulation.

I can’t say I agree with their foundational stance here, but I do agree that the pharma industry would cause LESS harm if it weren’t for government involvement.

Many of you I’m sure will immediately think of pharma disasters like thalidomide, Vioxx, and the recent 2020 injections.

Don’t we need gov to prevent those? Well gov didn’t prevent any of them in the first place.

The answer from government agencies is ALWAYS “we need more money/staff”. Always. There is never enough money to actually do the job. Do we actually believe that gov could prevent every product harm if we only gave them more money?

I am not a fan of pharmaceuticals. But gov regulations have made drug production so expensive, and getting them to market so long and tedious, that pharma companies really have no choice but to focus on “blockbuster” drugs, rather than simpler, cheaper products, or to modify existing drugs. Government regulations make it nonsensical to improve existing products. I know that doesn’t make much sense by this review alone, you’d have to read the book to understand the argument.

This book is about 30 years old, before books started to be dumbed down. So it is not the easiest read. It’s a bit dense and technical but I appreciated it and I do recommend it - especially if you think the pharma industry is COMPLETELY corrupt. I think it has no choice but to operate this way, and I blame the government.

Everything the government does is bad for us.