Pharmacies want to keep us sick 🙁 is there ANY truth to this?

[TuscanMum]

There’s a lady I know who posts lots of pharmaceutical conspiracies on a regular basis. Things like, they have a vested interest in keeping us sick so as we continue to need their drugs.

The sane part of me says this is rubbish, can’t be allowed, no way.

But a little part of me wonders.🙁

I have a vested interest in this as I’ve an autoimmune disease and keep trying different types of strong medication that haven’t yet worked but Rheumatologist says it’s not cureable and drugs are necessary.

Met a man, just today, who said his wife has lupus but refuses meds and just manages with diet.

I’d be interested to hear what others think or know about this?

Big pharma operates globally and many countries are really quite lax in their regulation of pharmaceutical sales practices.

Nails when people worry their doctor is working with Big Pharma to keep them ill, they don't normally mean that they think their doctor is using them as a test subject to see if the treatment works.

They mean that they fear hospitals and medical practices may follow the same financial models of commission as mobile phone salespeople in Fones4U.

We could have a conversation about ethical processes in human studies and trials, but it's not a major concern for the average person who distrusts doctors and/all pharmaceutical companies.

But you don’t have to engage. Stay healthy and never get sick and you won’t need to worry about this at all.

There are so many good doctors out there, I've met lots. I also know that some doctors and big pharma benefit hugely from keeping people sick, by this I only can use MS as an example I know about.

They could use HSCT and have an 80% success rate of halting the disease before it does damage, but they choose not to and put people of DMD's that have half the success rate because it works to their benefit, money funding trials, doctors getting papers published.

HSCT is a one off and it can be done for the same cost as 1 year of a DMD. The only person not benefiting is the poor sod with MS getting sicker year after year.

I'd imagine some of the poor sods who die from the hsct treatment or end up with long term side effects from it might assess the benefits slightly differently.

It's not quite as straightforward as it not being offered because big pharma would lose money because of it, is it?

Death rate is

The evidence shown already that cannabis can cure and help cancer and epilepsy is outstanding.

No evidence at all for curing cancer, of any type.

Epilepsy, there is some evidence that cannabis oil can help.

OP

If they want to keep people sick why have they developed aids to stop smoking? Big pharma would make far more if everyone smoked.

There is also no money in prevention

Like the HPV vaccine, if we're talking about cancer? Or indeed vaccines in general? Except the conspiracy theorists don't trust those either.

If you're still alive in ten to twenty years, you are in for the biggest shock of your livesI can't wait to see your reactions!

Luckystar777 what on earth are you talking about? If you're privy to information of such monumental significance, should you not give someone a heads up? Alert the press maybe?

I can remember saying to my DD several years ago,that there will never be a cure for all cancers. Why? Because the drug companies would have too much to lose. A conspiracy? Maybe. But I reckon that if anyone in the near,or maybe not-so-near future discovered some sort of cure all wonder treatment,or maybe a vaccine against it,they would be stamped down pretty damn quickly.

Oh of course. Because there are no other illnesses pharmaceutical companies can develop products for other than cancer. We know the cure for everything don't we 🙄

or maybe a vaccine against it,they would be stamped down pretty damn quickly

Explain the HPV vaccine then...

But I reckon that if anyone in the near,or maybe not-so-near future discovered some sort of cure all wonder treatment,or maybe a vaccine against it,they would be stamped down pretty damn quickly.

My field is developmental genetics which intersects with cancer rather a lot. Firstly there’s no one path to cancer - it’s an endpoint rather than a disease in Ireland and so there are thousands of different types. Even the same kind of cancer can have different mutations that lead to it. It’s many different diseases.
Secondly if someone finds a single method to undermine all cancers that’s likely to happen in a research context - Pharma don’t do the blue skies stuff, they pick promising avenues from academic research etc. So there will be a LOT of people following and aware of it. It’s just too many people to keep something secret.

There is no secret cure for cancer being hidden. If anyone had a cure for anything life threatening it’d be a huge money spinner. The price just gets jacked up to account for it being a one off. Hepatitis C for example - there’s a fairly effective cure for that and it costs about 400k.

Pharma has many, many dodgy practices, don’t get me wrong. LOTS of stuff done is unethical, dodgy and wrong. But nobody is sitting on a cure for cancer - it’s too valuable.

Well my cousin is a GP and she considers that pharmaceutical companies aim to keep us chronically sick, not to cure us, which is more or less what I have seen over the years.

That's doesn't necessarily mean that there is a magic cure elsewhere, though sometimes there is, it may just mean that nobody has bothered investing the time and money to find one.

Pharmaceutical companies don't even claim to be altruistic, they are in it for the money. In fact if they weren't, they would be committing a crime because they are legally bound to do everything possible to ensure that their shareholders get maximum dividends.

Do people actually, literally talk about conspiracies in respect of pharmaceutical companies? I personally think pharmaceutical companies are just doing their job, namely getting money for their shareholders. Possibly the ones who aren't always doing their job are the oversight agencies, like the FDA.

Well my cousin is a GP and she considers that pharmaceutical companies aim to keep us chronically sick, not to cure us, which is more or less what I have seen over the years.

She sounds incredibly ignorant about how things work and it is quite concerning that someone so stupid is a GP.

Pharmaceutical companies don't even claim to be altruistic, they are in it for the money. In fact if they weren't, they would be committing a crime because they are legally bound to do everything possible to ensure that their shareholders get maximum dividends.

Yes, they are in it in for the money which means that if they make a miraculous discovery and cure a serious illness they can make a fortune, the shareholders will make millions etc etc. i.e. why would they keep it quiet?!

I’m afraid that thinking pharmaceutical companies don’t have an interest in prolonging our lives in chronic sickness is deeply naive.

Pharmaceutical companies only have a short window to reap back the money they have spent on R&D and then make a profit. I think its only about 20 years before they become generic and any company can manufacture them

The conspiracy theorists in this are just ridiculous. Someone on page 5 said blood pressure can be cured with diet and exercise but the NHS don't want you to know this. So I looked up the NHS page fr blood pressure treatment. It lists lifestyle changes as the first and preferable treatment, and says that implementing these mean no medication is needed. Honestly, how can people be so foolish I say the NHS is keeping things secret when a ten-second Google tells you the exact opposite.

in case of any doubt, here's what it says, NHS page on treatment of high blood pressure :

"There are some changes you could make to your lifestyle to reduce high blood pressure. Some of these will lower your blood pressure in a matter of weeks, while others may take longer.
These include:
cutting your salt intake to less than 6g (0.2oz) a day – find out how you can reduce the amount of salt in your diet
eating a low-fat, balanced diet – including plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables; get tips on eating more healthily
being active – read some tips about getting more exercise
cutting down on alcohol – get tips on cutting down, including downloading a drinks diary and keeping track of your drinking
losing weight – find out what your ideal weight is using the BMI healthy weight calculator and read advice about losing weight if you're overweight
drinking less caffeine – found in coffee, tea and cola
stopping smoking – get help quitting
getting at least six hours of sleep a night if you can – read some tips for getting to sleep
You can take these steps today, regardless of whether or not you're taking blood pressure medication. In fact, by making these changes early on you may be able to avoid needing medication."

I’m afraid that thinking pharmaceutical companies don’t have an interest in prolonging our lives in chronic sickness is deeply naive.

And you're very naive if you think that there is or ever will be a magic pill that cures all illness. Different illnesses require different treatments and always will. Pharmaceutical have an interest in curing an illness as they can make a fortune out of doing it. Curing a disease won't prevent them making money in the future as there are always plenty of other illnesses to cure!

Pharmaceutical companies only have a short window to reap back the money they have spent on R&D and then make a profit. I think its only about 20 years before they become generic and any company can manufacture them

Yes, they only have 12 to 14 years usually to make money on a drug so there is no financial advantage to prolonging lives in chronic illness. If they find a cure for an illness they can charge a fortune for the drug over the relatively short time frame and move on to finding treatments for other illness.