John Scott asked:
Sometimes, you just have to smile. These big pharmaceutical companies spend vast sums of money researching the way the body works and building chemicals into drugs that will keep the body working well. This is all magnificently impressive. It would be even more impressive if it was done in public service. Altruism is a wonderful thing. You never have any doubts about people’s motives when there is transparency on the issue of whether the work is paid. But as soon as profit is an issue and stockholders start breathing down your neck to ensure the next dividend is up to expectation, the world gets a lot more complicated. You start to worry about whether commercial pressures force researchers to cut corners when they are assessing the safety of a new drug, or do they take risks to get a drug into the market to start earning money. Well, there’s this old saying: the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In the drug industry, once FDA approval is given, all the patients get to eat the drug to find out whether it proves good. It turns the market into a giant laboratory where all the patients are lab rats. Most of the time, it all works well. But, occasionally, patients die. The other feature of this process is the contribution of the lawyers. These happy people run around protecting Big Pharma’s intellectual property rights in the drugs. They want you to be safe. If anyone else comes along with a copy or, worse, a fake, they fall from the sky like avenging angels and strike the beasts down. So it is with great joy and rejoicing that we can report Pfizer is in the case yet again. This time their target is “Styriagra”. This is a delicate, glazed candy treat — pumpkin seeds coated in chocolate. Now here’s the inside story. Deep in Austria lurks this “terrible criminal”. He’s one of many who run businesses in Styria making oil from pumpkin seeds. In fact, the province has something of a reputation for this oil. This Austrian has experimented and produced this candy. For reasons all to easy to imagine, he made his tiny chocolate treats “oval” in shape, but not blue in color. Pfizer is convinced this candy is intended to trade on viagra’s name and reputation. Apparently little blue diamonds are exactly like chocolate ovals. Now here’s the test. If you go online to buy viagra, will you be confused if you see adverts for “Stryiagra” that notorious Austrian pumpkin treat? Might your focus waiver? Might you suddenly doubt the last ten years of history and buy pumpkin seeds to cure your erectile dysfunction? Well, I don’t think so, but Pfizer’s lawyers are on the case. I know I will sleep more soundly in my bed tonight. Thank you Pfizer for keeping us safe.
Sometimes, you just have to smile. These big pharmaceutical companies spend vast sums of money researching the way the body works and building chemicals into drugs that will keep the body working well. This is all magnificently impressive. It would be even more impressive if it was done in public service. Altruism is a wonderful thing. You never have any doubts about people’s motives when there is transparency on the issue of whether the work is paid. But as soon as profit is an issue and stockholders start breathing down your neck to ensure the next dividend is up to expectation, the world gets a lot more complicated. You start to worry about whether commercial pressures force researchers to cut corners when they are assessing the safety of a new drug, or do they take risks to get a drug into the market to start earning money. Well, there’s this old saying: the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In the drug industry, once FDA approval is given, all the patients get to eat the drug to find out whether it proves good. It turns the market into a giant laboratory where all the patients are lab rats. Most of the time, it all works well. But, occasionally, patients die. The other feature of this process is the contribution of the lawyers. These happy people run around protecting Big Pharma’s intellectual property rights in the drugs. They want you to be safe. If anyone else comes along with a copy or, worse, a fake, they fall from the sky like avenging angels and strike the beasts down. So it is with great joy and rejoicing that we can report Pfizer is in the case yet again. This time their target is “Styriagra”. This is a delicate, glazed candy treat — pumpkin seeds coated in chocolate. Now here’s the inside story. Deep in Austria lurks this “terrible criminal”. He’s one of many who run businesses in Styria making oil from pumpkin seeds. In fact, the province has something of a reputation for this oil. This Austrian has experimented and produced this candy. For reasons all to easy to imagine, he made his tiny chocolate treats “oval” in shape, but not blue in color. Pfizer is convinced this candy is intended to trade on viagra’s name and reputation. Apparently little blue diamonds are exactly like chocolate ovals. Now here’s the test. If you go online to buy viagra, will you be confused if you see adverts for “Stryiagra” that notorious Austrian pumpkin treat? Might your focus waiver? Might you suddenly doubt the last ten years of history and buy pumpkin seeds to cure your erectile dysfunction? Well, I don’t think so, but Pfizer’s lawyers are on the case. I know I will sleep more soundly in my bed tonight. Thank you Pfizer for keeping us safe.