| | | I ask as dementia is one key focus in my drug discovery interests.
Find it fascinating that new drugs for Alzheimer's like Namenda... operate on the same principle we're considering... as the drugs function by blocking particular receptor sites that otherwise will remain open... to be engaged by other things that aren't helpful... so blocking them helps... leaving them open doesn't...
But, when working to validate the drug function, they compare the drug's function to other "blockers" to validate and quantify its effects. And, what do they compare it with ? Magnesium... which is the "gold standard" they seek have new drugs live up to ?
So... why not just prescribe magnesium ? It's literally dirt cheap... and it works BETTER ? Dietary deficiencies are an under-studied risk factor ? And, the cause of recent increases... is most likely to be tied to recent changes... like the changes made during the Clinton Administration that altered quality standards for water systems...
So, now we strip the minerals out of the water in our water systems ? No. Not quite. The two choices you have in solving "water quality problems" are "flocculation"... precipitating the minerals... or else... you add other things as "clarifiers" that instead make the minerals better dissolved... so they don't precipitate ?
All that junk that used to deposit on the pipes and clog them over time ? That's not a problem any more. But, that means that instead of depositing on the pipes... it's depositing whatever is in that crust... in your head ?
Worse, the chemicals used as clarifying agents... are phosphates... so the mineral phosphate complexes formed... might tend to preferentially find their way into.... cellular energy metabolism ?
But, you don't make money from solving problems... you make money from selling drugs... when the incentive structures are broken... and markets are dominated by a lack of good faith... that reverses "first do no harm"... to "first ensure a profit"... as a poor proxy for the ability to do good.
Capitalism... makes no demands of market participants... in relation to good faith or good will ?
Free markets... instead... require as an entering argument... no fraud, no monopoly, and no obstruction of others market participation. The concept of free markets.... requires that basic understanding that competition is a form of cooperation... and that the cooperation required is required of all participants, who must agree to abide by the rules of the game... and ensure others do as well as a part of self interest... so that good faith and good will are made inherent to the system, and both are enabled and enforced by the participants...
If you don't have that... you don't have good faith and good will inherent to your system... so it should not be a surprise that the lack of any grounding in principle... delivers results we object to in their practical impact ?
The problems resulting from drug company's being focused on "discovery for profit" in a monopoly model... to the exclusion of problem solving... is an artifact of non-free market intervention that prevents free market functions... |
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