rant

so i just came out of a lecture today given by a VP of a prominent pharmaceutical company. he was suppose to speak to us about regulatory affairs but instead ended up sounding like a careers counsellor, oh, and not to mention a mouthpiece for all that's great and wonderful about the pharmaceutical industry.

he asked if there were any questions halfway through the lecture and so i asked why pharmaceutical companies, for all their profits and resources, are not doing more to make medicines available to those who desparately need it, e.g. developing countries in which people can barely afford to survive, let alone have access to and pay for AIDS retroviral medication. of course he answered with how these pharma companies have already done so much and that even if we make billions of dollars in profit, we have to pay a lot of taxes and bills, the cost of the research to bring drugs onto the market, be accountable to our shareholders, blah, blah, blah, etc.; in short, he did not answer my question. while i do see his point, and while i am not so naive as to not realize that at the end of the day a pharmaceutical company is a business, i just don't think he should be taking the complacent approach by saying "look, we've already done so much, we don't need to do more." if you've done so much then why are diseases like AIDS getting worse instead of better? while you distribute medicines to countries all over the world, why are the majority of the medicines headed for countries that can actually afford them? i know it's not all the pharmaceutical companies' fault; many governments (including canada) have promised medicines to developing countries only to deliver a miniscule amount if at all; i also know that education and prevention is as important, if not more so, in bringing about a reduction in the number of cases of AIDS. i just don't believe these companies are doing enough to improve the situation.

i know, i know, can they ever do enough? what is enough, when no one ever has to die from AIDS? i know this is the type of argument that could go on forever, but the way he was going on about the pharmaceutical industry you'd think it was the best thing since the invention of the wheel.

and i hate how it always comes down to money; look how much you can make if you were in industry, look how much you'd get in bonuses if you went onto become a lawyer representing patients or even the pharma companies themselves; you could practically see the dollar signs popping out of everyone's eyes. it made me sad.

and no, i don't think i'm morally superior than everyone else in the room and yes, of course people want to be paid well for what they do and i am no exception; while i know perhaps i can be too idealistic at times, i don't think it's "too idealistic" of me to expect more accountability and more action from the very companies that have the means and resources to invoke real change and improvement in the health of the world.

CET :o(