Thank you for such a well written blog article.

“So…you see the point…many parallels. And of course, golf puts people at risk…only a small percentage have heart attacks on the golf course (as with some drugs), golf can give you benefits while giving side effects (exercise is good but the stress of the game isn’t), you can lose your balls in golf (and your libido with drugs)…and so on.”

I totally agree with that statement. The stress of swing a golf ball and trying to win isn’t always good for your heart. Remember, athletes are very competitive
when it comes to their sport. Adding drugs to your heart condition sure will not help.

So…what does all this have to do with an -off the cuff- comment that asserts that the pharmaceutical industry has reached the apogee of its business cycle in innovation. Excuse me while I take a break………I find this idea absurd, if not depressing; and as a consumer of the best that US Pharmacopeia has to offer, I hope my hero’s (You Scientists) have not all “thrown in your towels” and left my future health to a new profession of technicians whose job is the constant remodeling of molecular structure for the purpose of either protecting a patent, changing drug delivery mechanisms or lowering the severity of nausea that I feel after taking the anti-inflammatory agents that you designed for the pain that I experience when I laugh. Oh yeah, what else: perhaps the loss of libido associated with the SSRI that I took due to overwhelming depression from my new found loss of hope for actual cures. Well, at least I can take a Cox-II inhibitor, an SSRI and a Viagra. This should allow me to experience at least one day of pain free, happiness: Unfortunately the Viagra will not work as it does not affect libido –just blood flow (guess a trip to the oyster bar is needed). Next year however, when I am overcome with dyspnea and chest pain and receive a coronary artery stent for the accelerated cardiovascular disease associated with my “pain treatment”, I can begin a thorough course of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor therapy. The statins should slow down the process long enough to experience liver failure as an adverse event.

For those of you that lost any momentum from a respected leader’s discouraging remarks; please do not stop. I suggest you review the Institute of Medicine’s remarks on treatment and health IOM and Health United States 2007 CDC HUS. You will note that there is a long way to go if your social objective is to cure disease.
If the pharmaceutical industry will not support your innovations due to market size and profit limitations, speak up; where the people go- the leaders will follow.

Of course, if you can create a cure for gluttony, you might just be onto something that will increase the number of quality life adjusted years (QALYs) experienced per lifetime in view of the recent data on obesity trends here in the US. But then again; perhaps it is all over; the fast food industry wins and I can retire to golf course; swing my nine iron and succumb to the sequella of both disease AND treatment.

Jeffrey Halbstein-Harris