Glaxo chief: Our drugs do not work on most patients

Indepedent News _UK ^ | 08 December 2003 | Steve Connor

[CDHart]

"His comments come days after it emerged that the NHS drugs bill has soared by nearly 50 per cent in three years, rising by £2.3bn a year to an annual cost to the taxpayer of £7.2bn."

Cause and effect, perhaps? Maybe NHS doesn't want to pay for drugs so they say they don't work? (Donning tinfoil hat!)

Carolyn

[boris]

I am alive because of drugs that "don't work".

I had a cardiac bypass in 1999. I am diabetic.

Glucophage keeps my blood sugar in control.
Vasotec keeps my blood pressure in the 'perfect' zone.
Sotalol (Betapace) keeps my atrial fibrillation from recurring.
And Elavil and Neurontin keep at bay the terrible pain of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Don't work? I seem to be alive and still functioning when I ought to be taking a dirt nap.

These are miracles, life in a bottle, and I wish I could personally thank the geniuses who invented them.

--Boris

[CJ Wolf]

"Before genetic testing, it was a crap shoot"

I would suggest that even with genetic testing it will be a crap shoot an expensive on at that.

[trajanus_red]

It doesn't say that they "don't work" ...it says they don't work for EVERYONE. But that those drugs worked for you at a particular time does not say anything. Look at your lifestyle in the past, prior to your health issues. How did you eat? How did you exercise, relax..etc. Life and health is not just about getting a disease and popping a pill, though often things get so bad to do personal health negligence that we are forced to take the drugs. My grandmother DIED from all the drugs she was on..the docs didn't even know what she was on. She went to the hospital one day for a broken leg and died due to a lung cancer that they never even bothered to test for, let alone give the appropriate treatment. I have other such stories, but I will leave it at this: the medical cartel is no god and yet it is precisely its business to pretend that it is. If you want to defend it, go right ahead, but I still say that it is better for all to take responsibility for their health, eat healthy organic foods, take good (not fake and cheap) supplements if necesseary...get plenty of exercise and relaxation,etc...

[webstersII]

Well said.

[johnb838]

I hear that. I tried Allegra, and I tried Claritin, but they were gawd-awfully expensive and I wasn't sure how well they were working. Now I just pop a couple of generic benadryl if I'm feeling allergic to something and they work just fine. For me.

[r9etb]

Sigh. Here's another "vile conspiracy" for these folks to yap about.....

[Endeavor]

You may suggest what you wish. That won't be the case for every disease state or drug.

[theFIRMbss]

> These are miracles, life in a bottle, and I wish I could personally thank the geniuses who invented them.

When astrologers
make "predictions," they are "right"
for a small sub-set

of the populous.
To the people favored by
chance, astrologers

work "miracles," too...
Smart people try to look at
the big picture, though...

[boris]

When astrologers
make "predictions," they are "right"
for a small sub-set

of the populous.
To the people favored by
chance, astrologers

work "miracles," too...
Smart people try to look at
the big picture, though...

When some people
Write bad haiku
Without spelling checkers
It is amusing if sad.

[boris]

"It doesn't say that they "don't work" ...it says they don't work for EVERYONE. But that those drugs worked for you at a particular time does not say anything. Look at your lifestyle in the past, prior to your health issues. How did you eat? How did you exercise, relax..etc. Life and health is not just about getting a disease and popping a pill, though often things get so bad to do personal health negligence that we are forced to take the drugs. My grandmother DIED from all the drugs she was on..the docs didn't even know what she was on. She went to the hospital one day for a broken leg and died due to a lung cancer that they never even bothered to test for, let alone give the appropriate treatment. I have other such stories, but I will leave it at this: the medical cartel is no god and yet it is precisely its business to pretend that it is. If you want to defend it, go right ahead, but I still say that it is better for all to take responsibility for their health, eat healthy organic foods, take good (not fake and cheap) supplements if necesseary...get plenty of exercise and relaxation,etc..."

I suggest you put your life where your mouth is. Join the Christian Scientists and refuse all drugs and medical treatments. Or take up homeopathy.

I do not know your age. When you are my age and find your body is falling apart, no drugs for you.

============================

This touches on a bigger issue. People claim the drug manufacturers are "greedy" because they invest hundreds of millions of dollars on inventing new drugs and then actually expect to make a profit on their hard work.

Evil drug companies. Imagine: inventing wonder drugs for money.

Of course, the government thinks medicine grows on trees; they will drive the manufacturers out of business or stop making new investments.

Salk, Sabin, Alexander Fleming--all blackguards for inventing evil drugs.

--Boris

[lepton]

Gee, aren't we all happy to be spending $400 billion over the next ten years for crap that doesn't work most of the time?

That's not at all what he said.

Medicines are not supposed to be used randomly, and once a given medicine is known to not work on a given individual for a given malady, usually the prescription is switched.

[theFIRMbss]

> When some people/Write bad haiku/Without spelling checkers/It is amusing if sad

I do it just as
a favor to people like
you. Within any

populace*, there are
people more comfortable
dealing with surface

rather than content.
I try to make all my posts
worthwhile to people

regardless of what
they're looking for -- real thinking,
or just a horse laugh...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Common Student Writing Problems, #11. "Populous" versus "Populace"]