re: How long before they find the cure for cancer?

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Drug rep gifts were kinda fun, those were the days. We used to have a Prilosec clock in the pharmacy that belched/hiccuped on the hour.

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I was working on the Agency side back then (early 2000s) and when we'd produce those premiums for the reps we'd always get them too. Bag chairs, car emergency kits, umbrellas, you name it. Would've loved to get my hands on a burping clock.

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Now they pay them for "research".

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I'm not sure I'm following. Can you go into a bit more detail on the specifics as you see them?

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Drug and medical device manufacturers are allowed to pay physicians for participation in research, consulting, and for making educational presentations. You can enter a physicians name here and see how much and from whom they were paid.

LINK

Research and consulting are broad terms that could describe many activities, but its seems unusual that in my medium size city so many physicians are participating in research and consulting.

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Companies can pay physicians for participating in advisory boards or for being a part of their speaker bureaus. This is not nothing new and is heavily regulated and reported (thus, the website you're referring to). Advisory boards give a specific company feedback on a drug, particular market, etc to help inform and refine a tactic or program, or just keep them aware of trends. Speakers bureaus are basically just advocates who speak on behalf of the company at events, conferences, and the like. They're trained, and are obviously advocates for that product or a KOL in the space, so they were all writing that product before they were ever on the speakers bureau. They get paid for their time to deliver those talks.

And yes, pharmaceutical companies do a ton of market research with patients, physicians, caregivers, you name it. I was a part of a ton of it. But if you are expecting a physician to give up an hour of their day for free, you're wrong. In person or phone call they usually get a couple hundred bucks to let someone pick their brain. That is anything but paying them to write a particular drug.

Already have. Would cost trillions and trillions of dollars to drug companies if known

It is correct that physicians are paid for research and consulting. Sometimes this is true R&D work, and sometimes it is a legal way to spend money on trips, experiences, etc for customers.

I don't understand how that fact is a bridge to, "they are hiding the cure to cancer"...

Cancer is an umbrella term for hundreds of diseases arising from an untold number of mutations in genes, many of which are not fully identified. The idea of a single "cure" is pure science fiction.

I can assure you of this: if any pharma company or device manufacturer developed a molecule or technology that did the impossible and just "cured" the shite, it would be expedited on the backs of near limitless investment, and once brought to market, everyone from the sales reps to the c suite to the shareholders would make unimaginable amounts of money.

The "incentive" to hide a "cure" is a figment of the imagination.

For comparison, billions of dollars are spent every year treating and managing osteoarthritis of the knees. Many companies exist and make profit primarily in this space. With that said, if someone developed a wonder molecule, it would be brought to market as fast as legally possible and would generate billions in revenue for whatever lucky company that was paying the bills for the lab.

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NCDawg52

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It is clear that many of these with the tinfoil hats do not understand a) the drug development process b) the costs associated to bring a drug to market c) the fact that you don't truly know if a drug is a "cure" until you're well into phase II or III trials (at which point tens or hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested) or d) logic

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Common folks have around a 22% risk of catching cancer with an expected increase to over 30% by 2030. Billionaires enjoy a much lower rate of under 5%. Maybe they take better care of themselves, or
maybe they know something we don’t?

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You don't think it could be because there are a lot less Billionaires than there all common folk do ya? That simple fact could really skew the numbers.