Ethics, research, drug companies, and the Crazy Boat

A couple of years ago, I was taking tickets at the door for a diabetes fundraiser and struck up a conversation with the hotel security guard. He asked what the event was and quickly responded that his dad had diabetes and that diabetes researchers and pharmaceutical companies were in cahoots to prevent the finding of a cure. Think about it, he said, they’d all be out of business, wouldn’t they? I was glad when my shift changed and I didn’t have to talk to the crazy man any longer.

These days, I’m in a number of LinkedIn groups concerning health, and, recently, another version of the crazy man started making comments about research and researchers, saying, essentially, that they all have cushy gigs that allow them to sit in the ivy towers, spend foundation and government money, and pronounce that, alas, their recent two-year excursion into Disease X has found that Disease X is still marching along and that, guess what, more research is needed.

I’m not ready to jump into the Crazy Boat yet, but I do have one suggestion.

I just posted an item about the prevalence of hypertension among children, whose conclusion says that more research is needed because not much is being done about the problem. I did a quick search and found that at least one whole book had been written on the topic way back in 1994. Reuters has a story about the study wherein someone points out that there’s someone from Bristol-Myers Squibb among the authors.

Well, of course we’re not trying to just get kids into the pharma loop, says another one of the authors when questioned by Reuters.  They have a lot of data and can be helpful in the investigative process. Probably so.

Here’s the suggestion, before the government jumps in and does it for us.

We need a mechanism, an overseeing group, ideally made up of just plain folks, that holds all of these parties responsible. No academics, no drug company personnel, just regular people, sort of like a jury. I don’t know off the top of my head how it would work, but knowing that something like that was out there would make the temptation to jump into the Crazy Boat less alluring.