mightyoakstherapy.com

In some cultures, the best guess was that the world was flat and that the sun was a kind of torch or fire put there by gods to light the sky and keep us warm. Today, even though scientists have not always had the best of reputations, we have at least managed to prove the world to be roundish and that the Earth orbits the sun. Although this kind of science is interesting in an abstract kind of way, it does not touch individual lives in the same way as, say, medical research. Here concerned scientists may work to understand different diseases or disorders so that more effective treatments can be devised. The work of one team may save the lives of millions over the next decades. It is therefore faintly curious that, for the most part, astronomy is funded by the state and the development of medications is funded by private companies for profit. Common sense should have this the other way round. There is no immediate social benefit from knowing more about the cosmos so what justification is there for spending public money on this research? Equally, there is every benefit for the community at large if more safer and effective treatments are made available. Lives will be saved. The quality of life for those who are injured can be improved. This would seem to be worthy of support out of public funds.

But the current system is to leave it to private interests to decide what to research. If there are only a few people who have this problem or the many are too poor to pay a high retail price, there is no profit to be earned. So no research and development to help them. As a result, millions die from diseases that could be treated. Even when a “good” social purpose is served, the basic research is only done to get the drug or device approved. Once the FDA has given its nod, the spotlight passes on to the next drug in the pipeline. Little is done to follow up on how the drug actually performs once it is let loose into the world. The reason, of course, is that this research could be inconvenient and damage the profitability of the drug. Suppose the research found the drug was killing patients. It would have to be withdrawn and profits would dry up.

It is therefore interesting to see that viagra is probably the most continuously researched drug on the planet. For example, in 2002, there was a piece of meta-research done on 27 sets of clinical trials. This is research which picks the best conducted individual trials and puts all the results together to see if there are any general trends. There have been more than one hundred more trials since then. The conclusion is that viagra is not only safe but also effective in men who suffer erectile dysfunction because of depression, diabetes, heart disease, prostate cancer and spinal cord injuries. It is a shame the same level of interest is not shown in proving other drugs such as Vioxx to be as safe.