Monday 11 August 2008

Pharmanoia

This is a new word that has just entered the activists' vocabulary. Coined by Science writer Jon Cohen in an article "Pharmanoia: Coming to a clinical trial near you", he defined it as "the irrational fear and/or hatred of pharmaceutical companies and their products."

I don't fear Big Pharma. But sometimes I do hate them - and I don't think it's an irrational hate. One example:

Back in the early 90's, my partner (like most people with AIDS) was experiencing quite nasty candidiasis or thrush. The fungus had moved to his throat, and made swallowing very difficult. Like many, the only solution was an anti-fungal drug with the generic name of fluconazole, but marketed by Pfizer under the brand name Diflucan.

One several occasions, my partner need to take the 200mg tablet every day for two weeks or more. The price of each tablet was the equivalent of $10, so it cost at least $150 each time. We accepted that, although it did seem a bit steep; at least we could afford it, and we didn't know any better.

Now I do know better: GPO in Thailand make a generic version of fluconazole, which they market for ten cents a tablet. That's right, 1 percent of Pfizer's price (although I see that's now gone up to $16.33 in the US!).

I'm not against companies making a reasonable profit for their shareholders. But that level of profit? At the expense of poor patients? I'd call that worse than gouging.

To be fair, Pfizer did start a special access program to allow poor people to get the drug more cheaply. But it was so bound up by red tape that I have yet to hear of anybody actually benefitting from the program - all it did was to hold out false hope.

I don't like Pfizer. I think I have good reason not to like Pfizer. I have told them so on several occasions, not that they cared. But I don't think my dislike can be called "pharmanoia", because I think it is very rational.

Babé

No comments: