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Original poster

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

263 replies

TuscanMum · 26/03/2018 21:10

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?

OP posts:
DairyisClosed · 26/03/2018 21:59

Also the pharmacies don't actually make the medicine. You know that right?

WhatWouldLeslieKnopeDo · 26/03/2018 22:01

Yes. Watch a documentary. That's the same as decades of medical research Hmm

Coconutspongexo · 26/03/2018 22:02

I’m sick of people telling me to watch documentaries.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 26/03/2018 22:03

If cannabis cured all cancers ‘Big Pharma’ would be all over it like a rash.

Imagine how much money you would make on the patent of the pharmaceutical derived from whatever it is in cannabis that cured all cancers.

That theory makes no sense at all.

ivykaty44 · 26/03/2018 22:03

Why are pharmaceutical companies not for profit then? Just curious how the profit part works and where does it go?

QueenOfThorns · 26/03/2018 22:04

There is a cure for cancer, but it isn’t pharmaceutical. You can develop a targeted therapy against every mutation under the sun and you’re only buying time. As far as I know, most types of solid tumour can be cured by surgery if you catch them early enough and get all the malignant cells out, so my theory is that really major improvements in cancer cure rates will only come with better screening and detection techniques.

StickThatInYourPipe · 26/03/2018 22:04

I work alongside big pharma companies and will tell you this. The amount of money they will pay to ensure 1 emergency injection gets to a patient in need is rediculous (in a good way) I do not believe in the woo bad pharma conspiracies and the only people I have ever met who do push these theories are very odd.

PinotMwah · 26/03/2018 22:04

Without putting too fine a point on it, this is conspiracist wank by people who don't understand science or drug development.

Pharmaceutical companies do some really bad things (and trust me I know). Corruption, false lobbying, profiteering.

But its neither in their interest nor in their power to allow people who they could cure to remain sick.

Cannabinoids (not cannabis) do have a role to play in some medicine as in epidiolex, which is for epilepsy. This is nothing to do with cannabis. People who claim that cannabis can cure cancer are talking out of their arse.

Pharmaceuticals are incredibly hard and expensive to develop and incredibly heavily regulated. The testing is very rigorous and authorities will not allow things onto the market unless there is very high evidence of clinical efficacy in large numbers of patients. Anyone who thinks you can make drugs to make sick people stay sick just doesn't have the most basic understanding of how they work.

Quack remedies, on the other hand (homeopathy/herbal remedies/cannabis as a cure for cancer) are not regulated at all, no evidence of efficacy is required whatsoever and anyone can sell anything.

People who think that "natural" remedies are good/safe and pharmaceuticals are a big conspiracy to keep us all ill are poorly informed and don't have the most basic grasp of how science works.

It's a seductive theory but at the end of the day its total bollocks.

NSEA · 26/03/2018 22:04

Having worked directly within this industry I can assure you that there isn’t a big conspiracy. But drugs are very expensive to make and often too expensive to sell on.

Besides, the idea that drugs are somehow held back because they want to keep people sick is counter productive. A lot of people have profited from paracetamol, for example.

It’s actually the process involved in making the drug that makes it unaffordable, not some big conspiracy that if we cure a disease then noone will buy our drugs. They’ll always be sickness which needs curing.

TommyandGina · 26/03/2018 22:05

@TuscanMum I have an Autoimmune condition as well. Psoriatic arthritis Sad for which I take subcutaneous methotrexate weekly, and cimzia - one of the new anti tnf wonder drugs. To be honest I don't have the energy to discuss the pharmaceutical debate, but I do know how much better I felt, and that my psoriasis disappeared completely when I ate a very restrictive diet.

The diet took some serious planning, as well as a lot of self control and restraint, it was bloody hard work. Happy to share the basics with you - let me know if you want to know more. Was all stuff you can get in the supermarket, no funny potions or supplements before you start thinking I'm promoting something Wink

Cliona1972 · 26/03/2018 22:06

Those who scream "Big Pharma scam" generally tend to be relatively healthy. Let's see them refuse chemo at stage 4 when the CBD oil hasn't worked.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 26/03/2018 22:06

In a ideal world no one would ever get sick.
Then there would be no need for pharmacists and NHS staff.

Therefore maybe there is some truth in it.

Backscratchesforever · 26/03/2018 22:07

@bananafish81 I have fibromyalgia so I do NEED pain relief, it is just nothing helps me enough so I can walked. I am stuck in a mobility scooter instead.

Of course cancer isn’t one type of disease, I never said it was.

Biologifemini · 26/03/2018 22:07

Well Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a cancer that is curable. And ABVD isn’t a particularly expensive drug combination.

Admittedly I work for small pharma though.

Many drugs treat or alleviate symptoms and do not necessarily cure. Finding the cause of whatever illness you have is crucial otherwise treatment is tricky. Eg if you treat tiredness with vitamin D, when you have iron deficiency as well, then you are wasting your time.

rollingonariver · 26/03/2018 22:09

Do you not think that there'd be one good guy within that company that'd blow the whistle? Considering scientists who are studying cures for illnesses are presumably doing so because they want to find the cure? Do you know how much money they have to spend on research?
Also, if there was a cure for cancer that one person figured out it'd only be so long before someone else figured it out. Newton wasn't the first person to have an Apple fall on his head after all, he was just the one that gave it a name.

Coconutspongexo · 26/03/2018 22:09

How did you come to that conclusion aww it’s very simplistic

Creambun2 · 26/03/2018 22:10

The evidence shown already that cannabis can cure and help cancer

Utter horseshit.

rollingonariver · 26/03/2018 22:11

Also, rich people are still dying of cancer. Do you not think they'd be cured by the big companies?
A lot of the first world countries have public health systems and surely all those governments would have something to say about spending excess money on this ?

MabantoMoonface · 26/03/2018 22:13

Creambun2

The evidence shown already that cannabis can cure and help cancer

Utter horseshit.

Horseshit can cure all sorts of cancers I'll have you know. You just need to eat a small patty once a day. Generally just after having smoked a massive cure-all joint

Rumpledfaceskin · 26/03/2018 22:14

Are big pharma always completely ethical? No, not many companies are. Are they actually trying to make us ill with their drugs? No.

I do however worry about health care systems where the patient pays and this is why the nhs is so sacrosanct. I don’t believe a lot of the healthcare people receive is strictly ethical. For instance opiates being aggressively marketed and doctors receiving bonuses for prescribing them in the 90s in the US. Seems to have caused some pretty wide spread problems now. Last weekend My DB (in the USA) was given some shot of antibiotics which of course he paid for for what was very likely to have been a stomach virus.

Mightymucks · 26/03/2018 22:15

I do wonder why they can’t use things like benzodiazepines and opiates for mental illness. What is the logic when they stop the pain? It would be so much better if people could have managed addictions instead of self medicating.

Mrskeats · 26/03/2018 22:15

It’s utter bullshit.
DH works in medical publishing and gets to see new research every day on how we are curing and helping people today that would have been so much worse off even a few years ago.

confuddledconfudle · 26/03/2018 22:15

@Awwlookatmybabyspider I guess that's why people in the bible lives for 100's of years - no NHS then Hmm I'm typing this and thinking - should I delete as I will be giving stupid more ideas

Also do you not think these scientists would want the fame and glory with finding cures. They would be known by all and remembered in history - that would tempt a lot of people to break the secret.

Whisky2014 · 26/03/2018 22:16

Big pharma need to focus on widespread diseases to yes, make a profit but also help as many people as they can. Do you realise just how much work goes in to research and development for these drugs? buildings and plants to facilitate the manufacture of active ingredients? It's ALOT. And very, very strict regulations, audits and inspections that pharmaceutical companies have to (rightly) jump through hoops for. Let's keep a focus on what they do for people rather than stir up some "Oh wouldn't this be interesting if it were true" bullshit conspiracy. There are big pharma companies out there looking at rare diseases too I should add.
Just because some things havent worked for you and others doesn't mean they do for all. On the contrary actually.

Backscratchesforever · 26/03/2018 22:16

Funny you say it is horseshit... I doctor on this morning said that cannabis can cure some cancers and help some patients in pain.
A Doctor, on National tv. This was only a few days ago