'Corporate Money' Leads to Life-Saving Medical Discoveries

[Quantum Windbag]

I know this isn't going to change the minds of the statists, but it might open the eyes of a few people.

For years, my brother annoyed me by not embracing the libertarianism that changed my life. It bored him. He was comfortable in his Harvard cocoon. But then he realized that the anti-capitalist activists who fight with me on my TV show are also the people who make life more difficult for doctors, and for patients who want cures.
Lately, the anti-capitalists have become obsessed with "conflict of interest" in science—any trace of corporate money must poison honest medical research.
Obamacare includes a rule called the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. It orders companies that make medical products to disclose even bagels they serve doctors and anything valued above $10. On my TV show this week, Tom calls that "the conflict of interest mania ... taking normal competition ... into a witch hunt."
But doesn't corporate money tempt doctors to push inferior treatments and drugs? "People cheat for money," replied Tom. "But evidence that collaborations compromise clinical integrity and patient care is practically nonexistent. A voluminous 2009 Institute of Medicine report on 'Conflict of Interest in Medical Research' was unable to find evidence of a negative effect on patient outcomes."
How much good comes from corporate/research collaboration? I assumed that most new drugs and improved medical treatments come because of government-funded research. Tom's reply:

"I've lived off government-funded research my whole life. I've panhandled off your tax money. It's important. But the vast predominance of what gets products to patients comes from the private sector."
​

'Corporate Money' Leads to Life-Saving Medical Discoveries - Reason.com

 

[OnePercenter]

I know this isn't going to change the minds of the statists, but it might open the eyes of a few people.

For years, my brother annoyed me by not embracing the libertarianism that changed my life. It bored him. He was comfortable in his Harvard cocoon. But then he realized that the anti-capitalist activists who fight with me on my TV show are also the people who make life more difficult for doctors, and for patients who want cures.
Lately, the anti-capitalists have become obsessed with "conflict of interest" in science—any trace of corporate money must poison honest medical research.
Obamacare includes a rule called the Physician Payment Sunshine Act. It orders companies that make medical products to disclose even bagels they serve doctors and anything valued above $10. On my TV show this week, Tom calls that "the conflict of interest mania ... taking normal competition ... into a witch hunt."
But doesn't corporate money tempt doctors to push inferior treatments and drugs? "People cheat for money," replied Tom. "But evidence that collaborations compromise clinical integrity and patient care is practically nonexistent. A voluminous 2009 Institute of Medicine report on 'Conflict of Interest in Medical Research' was unable to find evidence of a negative effect on patient outcomes."
How much good comes from corporate/research collaboration? I assumed that most new drugs and improved medical treatments come because of government-funded research. Tom's reply:

"I've lived off government-funded research my whole life. I've panhandled off your tax money. It's important. But the vast predominance of what gets products to patients comes from the private sector."
​

'Corporate Money' Leads to Life-Saving Medical Discoveries - Reason.com

Drug companies are good and will never cheat for profit and the sky is pink with unicorns that jump over rainbows.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Drug companies are good and will never cheat for profit and the sky is pink with unicorns that jump over rainbows.

Thanks for reinforcing my point about statists.

 

[whitehall]

The thing we need to understand is that federal bureaucracies produce nothing but bureaucratic waste. Federal bureaucratic drones do not have to worry about production or salary increases or the issues that make corporate America great. Ever wonder why federal data bases are routinely hacked? The federal drones don't give a shit about production or security. They collect a good salary and a decent pension and leave it for the next guy. Federal grants to universities are the extensions of bureaucratic droneness. As long as the professors drive a medium Lexus car and the graduate students get a relative A the federal grant will achieve the high standards that the federal grant pays for regardless of the scientific standards.

 

[Mr. H.]

"Corporate money" is easily traceable. The monies of bureaucracies are virtually intraceable.

 

[Levy]

"Corporate money" is easily traceable. The monies of bureaucracies are virtually intraceable.

I agree.

 

[initforme]

Corporations have money to burn and continue to complain that they are overregulated and over taxed. To both accounts I say "crybabies" as they can afford to pay some lazy underachieving CEO millions without blinking an eye. My dream job would be a whistleblower in a major corporation. Bring em to their knees.