BIG PHARMA

Issues within the pharmaceutical industry do not imply that 'magic beans' can cure cancer.

For the record I do not buy any of the "Big Pharma" conspiracy theories. While there are certain problems with that industry most critics go off the scale into complete woo woo land.

Real problems

Opioid deaths - Since 2010, there have been more overdoses resulting in death in the United States from prescription opioid pharmaceuticals than heroin and other street narcotics. The opioid epidemic is a powerful example of actual sins by the pharmaceutical industry, and rather big ones. This is one area where it wouldn't be hyperbole to say Big Pharma has blood on its hands. How America Got Hooked on Opioids | The War on Drugs - YouTube

Cost - Imodium costs 45 pence per tablet, Buy Imodium Original Capsules 2mg Online - Pharmica While plain Loperamide costs 8 pence per tablet. Loperamide 2mg Capsules 10 - ExpressChemist.co.uk - Buy Online - Same dose, same active ingredient, a factor of over 5 in cost !!!!!!

Likewise I compared costs of anti-malaria tablets with several other nationalities while on safari in Africa  and found some people were paying 5 times more than I was.

Advertising - While many countries allow over-the-counter drugs to be advertised, only the United States and New Zealand allow prescription drugs to be advertised on television. Many critics believe “Big Pharma” has abused this tolerance by pushing drugs that may not be effective or applicable to their conditions on viewers. In the United States, TV advertisements for pharmaceuticals must list the major side effects that were detected during the drug's safety trials; this disclosure can give the false impression that older drugs (the ones that came out before TV advertising was an option) are safer than all these newfangled drugs, when in fact the older drugs tend to have just as many side effects as the new ones do. (side effects for aspirin, for example, would fill several pages.)

Medicalization and renaming - “Big Pharma” often enlists the help of advertising executives to coin names for new maladies and rename old maladies to try to expand the number of prescriptions written. One example is Restless Leg Syndrome which is caused by too much stress, not enough sleep and the use of stimulants (caffeine), alcohol, H2-histamine blockers, iron deficiency or insufficiency, and certain antidepressants. In the old days when people only worked one job, RLS wasn't much of a problem. However, because some Americans now need to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet, RLS is much more common. As a result, RLS treatment is the most often advertised on American TV. 

Old diseases don't have the emotional punch that 3 and 4 letter acronyms have and the fact in order to sell a drug it has to treat a disease, “Big Pharma” regularly practises Newspeak and creates new names or even new diseases, which has been coined "disease mongering" or "medicalization".

Further reading https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Big_Pharma#Actual_problems

Conspiracy theories

While the pharmaceutical companies, as shown above, do have a lot to answer for regarding their business practices, many critics of Big Pharma go way, way beyond the realm of well-deserved criticism of these corporations. The biggest indicator that someone is a conspiracy theorist is their reluctance to discuss the “real problems” with big pharma. As an experiment I typed in “opioid” into the facebook search of friends posts. It did not return a single result despite the fact I have at least a dozen friends who have been raging against big pharma for the last couple of years of the covid pandemic. 

The groups that push Big Pharma conspiracies tend to fall into two camps which often overlap: alternative medicine cranks, quacks, as well as stock conspiracy theorists. Big Pharma plays the villain in the quack persecution complex as it works tirelessly to suppress their "brilliant cures". The general train of thought behind those who reject evidence-based medicine is fraudulent and all the studies and experiments are bogus. Any studies showing inefficacy of a treatment are immediately latched onto as "proof" that medical science is bunk by Joseph Mercola and Mike Adams types. Then there are the really cranky cancer conspiracies revolving around the idea that Big Pharma invented the cure for cancer but is covering it up. There is also a new bunch of fringe theorists, who think that all cancer is a fungus, and that all scientific studies on cancer are therefore frauds. Anti-vaxxers also live on Big Pharma conspiracy theories. This opens the door for the woo-meisters to peddle their bullshit, because, you see, they actually care about you while Big Pharma has a profit motive and they don't. Nuh-uh, no profit motive for quackery at all. Just pure all-natural goodness like nature intended, naturally, of course..

The Brave Maverick Doctor is a part of the mythos of woo, anti-science and conspiracist thinking generally. In the usual scenario, a "brave maverick doctor" invents a miracle cure for cancer, AIDS, autism, chronic Lyme disease, malaria, and toe fungus, but this is suppressed by evil Big Pharma and he is hounded by Big Pharma Shills who cause trouble with advertising and medical regulators on the wholly spurious grounds that nobody else in the entire world has ever managed to duplicate the effect of the miracle cure.

RESPONSES TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Who exactly is "Big Pharma" ? The heads of multinational companies, every local pharmacist or something in-between. It's a deliberately vague and meaningless term The Big Pharma Conspiracy (skeptoid.com)

Likewise weasel words such as “experimental” and “gene therapy” are used to discredit "Big Pharma". At what point exactly does a medication become non- experimental ? What genes exactly are added, modified or removed ? 

During covid, predictions were made such as we would be made to have endless boosters jabs "Endless boosters" until:2021-12-31 since:2021-01-01 - Search / X (twitter.com) that never came true. I can’t get one today NHS England » NHS issues final call to come forward for COVID booster despite being a “repeat customer”. 

Likewise many people got hysterical about compulsory vaccine passports "Vaccine passports" until:2021-12-31 since:2021-01-01 - Search / X (twitter.com) only for the UK parliament to vote against them. Covid-19: Vaccine passports scrapped in bars and restaurants - BBC News

Most people will get sick eventually. If cancer vanishes off the face of the earth tomorrow "Big Pharma" doesn't lose out. It would simply mean more people would be around to get other things like heart disease, Alzheimer's, pneumonia etc. Likewise if everyone quit alcohol, tobacco, junk food and hit the gym "Big Pharma" doesn't lose out. Entire hospitals were made obsolete by the polio vaccine. People will still get sick but just from different diseases at a different stage of life. Very few people stay perfectly healthy and die in their sleep at the age of 90. We are never going to run out of sick people so the idea that Big Pharma is deliberately making people sick or wouldn't profit if we cured certain diseases is crazy. 

The idea that if everyone turned their backs on "Big pharma" most things could be cured "naturally" is absolute garbage. The average life expectancy in the UK in 1850 was around 40, there was a reason for this. 

If Big Pharma didn't make any money there would be no incentive for them to find cures. While I personally hate the idea of them selling treatments at a huge margin. It's far better than the alternative of these treatments not existing at all and people living shorter / less productive lives. A lot of people live in a fantasy world where all medical research is done for free.

There are plenty of examples of where big pharma could have ripped us off but didn’t. My Yellow Fever vaccination was a one off for life jab where they could have easily conned me into paying for a booster every 5 years. The cheap drug Dexamethasone was approved for the treatment of covid Coronavirus breakthrough: dexamethasone is first drug shown to save lives (nature.com) 

If "big pharma" are hiding quick cures to make money then by the same logic billionaires could pay them for these quick cures. Billionaire Steve Jobs faith in alternative medicine likely cost him his life.

Many opponents of "big pharma" promote supplements to "boost the immune system" which while being a myth. Mythbusting: Boosting Your Immune System (news-medical.net).  Many of those supplements are actually made by "big pharma".

Centrum (multivitamin) - Wikipedia - Owned by Haleon, Originally Pfizer!
Pharmavite - Wikipedia - Owned by Otsuka Pharmaceutical
One A Day - Wikipedia - Owned by Bayer
GNC (company) - Wikipedia - Owned by Harbin Pharmaceutical Group

Buy Multivitamins Online, Supplements & Herbal Medicines – Nature's Way (natures-way.com) - Schwabe Pharma UK

Likewise most people who claim to oppose "big pharma" actually still support them. Most hardline anti-vaxxers who argue that their family doctor is clueless or deliberately trying to kill them (depending on what conspiracy theory they believe) are happy to consult the same family doctor for everything else.

It assumes that everyone in the medical industry is an emotionless robot who only cares about the bottom line. This is a problem with the claim that “big pharma is hiding the cure for cancer”. Most human beings do not behave like this, they always have family and friends they care about. 

Doctors spend most of their time telling their patients to live healthier lives. The walls of my local doctors waiting room are covered in posters telling people to stop smoking, exercise more, cut down on alcohol etc. Hardly "wanting people sick so they can profit".

Most people want a quick fix instead of changing their lives. The world is full of people who would rather take tablets than lose weight and stop smoking. They don't want doctors telling them to give up their favourite foods and habits. 

If “big pharma profits from people being sick”, plenty of other industries lose out. The 40 pounds ``big pharma" made from my back injury (Naproxen tablets) was vastly outweighed by the overtime my workplace had to pay to cover my months absence. Plus the money I wasn't putting into the local economy due to not being able to go out. My workplace has tons of safety procedures to stop me being exposed to harmful substances or situations, because it's in their financial interest to keep me healthy. If the covid vaccination was half as harmful as anti vaxxers say it is. Why didn't my work place advise me against getting it ?

They are the first to complain if the government tries to do something. If the government passed a law restricting the sale of sugary drinks to school kids (a great idea). They instantly do a 180 and start complaining about "freedom of choice" and "nanny state". Ironically the same people who claim "the government wants you fat so they can control you"

The world is full of industries that profit from other peoples misfortunes. "Big car mechanic" profits when your gearbox fails. "Big burglar alarm" profits from higher crime rates. "Big pest control" profits when wasps build a nest in your attic. Yet there is no mass conspiratorial thinking about these people.

Many of the "anti big pharma" crowd seem to have no problem putting their money into other more questionable industries. In my observation they have no problem funding "big tobacco", "big oil", electronic companies that exploit 3rd world slave labour and drug cartels. At exactly the same rates as the general population.

PROBLEMS WITH THE ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE INDUSTRY

“Alternative medicine that works is just called medicine”

The alternative medicine industry is worth billions. They are not giving it away for free and have obvious financial incentives to lie to people about mainstream medicine. Many of the famous anti vaxxers have vast fortunes and most of them have an online store selling untested products. Joseph Mercola - RationalWiki

The “Wellness industry” is worth 4.37 Trillion dollars while the pharmaceutical industry is worth 1.48 trillion dollars. 

Global health and wellness market value 2025 | Statista

Global pharmaceutical industry - statistics & facts | Statista

There is no “Alternative medicine” for a broken leg or Appendicitis. A suspicious parallel to the inability of religious faith healers to cure these conditions.

The use of weasel words such as “Natural”, “Detox”, “Complementary”, “holistic”, “allopathy”, “traditional”, “eastern”. The Semantics of Quackery | Quackwatch

It promotes obvious scams such as homoeopathy, the belief that the more dilute a medicine is the better it works.Yet this industry is worth billions Homeopathy Global Market Report 2023 (yahoo.com)

Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a fatal dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage 

Lack of internal criticism. Person A claims to cure cancer with baking soda and Person B claims to cure cancer with cannabis oil. Both will attack the mainstream (surgery and chemotherapy) but never each other. This is an almost universal trait of conspiracy theories. 

Why am I depressed ?

Chiropractors: spine subluxation is the root cause

Naturopath: your body is full of toxins

Acupuncturist: your life energy is blocked

Homoeopath: you need to balance your vital force!

Reiki practitioner: unblock your chakras

Lack of basic understanding. Many speak of Cancer as being a single disease when in reality it’s a collection of over 200 distinct diseases. Types of cancer vary considerably in their causes and the way in which they grow and spread - the sheer complexity of cancer makes a single cure incredibly unlikely.

Heavy reliance on anecdotes. “It worked for me” personal testimonies that get shared millions of times on social media without anyone checking if they are true. Anecdotal evidence - RationalWiki

Unreasonable levels of evidence. People will demand 10 years of data to assess the safety of a new vaccine. But will believe an unconfirmed story on social media about horse dewormer or fish tank cleaners being a miracle cure. #CovidTrutherLogicFails - Search / X (twitter.com)

Not understanding statistics. One website sold magnetic bracelets claiming to cure back pain with a 100% money back guarantee within 90 days. Sounds good, but the problem is that most back pain is the result of pulls / strains that will go away anyway in 6-8 weeks. See also Base rate fallacy - Wikipedia

Lack of testing. No statistics available on how effective an alternative medicine actually is.

Lack of active ingredients. Mainstream medicine clearly states what compound(s) you are actually taking as opposed to an unknown quantity of a ground up plant.

Lack of regulation. The decongestant phenylephrine is currently being pulled from shelves due to being ineffective when swallowed. Phenylephrine: Popular OTC medicines for colds and allergies don’t work, FDA panel says | CNN. When was the last time an “alternative medicine” was pulled by its own practitioners for being ineffective?

Side effects. Medicines are required by law to list side effects, alternative medicine typically hides behind a legal disclaimer. “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” 

 

Negative outcomes are usually ignored Tamar Stitt: Death of 10-year-old cancer sufferer likely preventable, WA coroner finds - ABC News

A textbook example of what’s wrong with alternative medicine Rick Simpson - Marijuana Cancer Cure - The Skeptic's Dictionary (skepdic.com)