There’s probably no industry more reviled in the age of populism than Big Pharma. Both political parties now engage in knee-jerk demonization of one of the most successful and valuable sectors of the economy. It’s not just lazy and irrational — it’s probably going to get people killed.
No industry has done as much to improve our lives as Big Pharma, save perhaps Big Ag, which efficiently feeds billions of humans, many of whom, until very recently, were constantly on the brink of starvation.
Big Pharma allows millions of people to alleviate debilitating pain, manage dangerous and chronic diseases, mitigate their incapacitating depression, enjoy intimacy for longer, control high blood pressure and diabetes, assist in making more children, and ensure longer lives, just to name a very few of many benefits.
Vaccines, of course, have transformed numerous once-deadly ailments that might have killed your grandparents into nothing but unpleasant footnotes of history. In the not-too-distant future, it is highly probable that people will have drugs to manage obesity and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s better and treat lung cancer and possibly cure autoimmune diseases, among many other ailments. In many ways, we’re in the golden age of medicine. You should be thankful.
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Let’s just say Big Pharma has done more for us than every government welfare program combined.
None of this, of course, is to say that pharma, like any other industry, doesn’t engage in poor behavior. Pharma is a rent-seeking entity looking to quash competition. It will sometimes attempt to conceal negative results, take shortcuts, overstate the efficacy of some of its new drugs, or prevent the development of cheaper generics. People are people. There is no doubt about it.
But if doctors are overprescribing pain medicine or selling opioids to people without prescriptions or acting irresponsibly, the state has a duty to deal with illegality. You have a duty to make good decisions. The government shouldn’t be handing pharma any special favors, but it certainly shouldn’t be treating it like the enemy of the people. Yet, that’s what it seems many voters desire.
The race to produce a vaccine during the COVID pandemic, which had shut down all of society, was taken in good faith. But the public anger over the results is entirely understandable. Public health officials, with the help of states and the federal government, effectively forced millions of people to inject themselves with fast-tracked vaccines under the threat of losing their jobs and positions. The societal pressure to do so was also immense. There is no excuse for it. The damage lockdowns inflicted on public trust in our institutions is one of the great scandals of our time. There has never been a reckoning for it.
None of that, however, justifies throwing away a century of hard-won medical advances. Big Pharma doesn’t have an army or jails or mind control machines. It can’t force you to do anything. The only power pharma holds over a person is handed to it by politicians. Elect better ones.
Nor is the COVID disaster an excuse to embrace and spread conspiracy theories. Because COVID vaccines were backed and fast-tracked by the government and largely shielded from liability under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, many people seem to be under the impression that Big Pharma is barely regulated. One of the reasons our medicine can be so expensive is that the industry is among the most, if not the most, heavily regulated industries in the country. There is probably nothing more difficult to bring to market than a new drug. (If anything, the Food and Drug Administration should be loosening regulations to allow people, especially terminally ill Americans, to take experimental, possibly life-saving drugs rather than making them wait around.)
As we all know, pharmaceutical products, even over-the-counter ones, caution consumers of every imaginable deleterious effect, even if there is a minuscule risk. There are no surprises. Still, drug companies remain liable for possible damages from those who are harmed by their products or claims. Indeed, pharma is the most sued industry in the world. GlaxoSmithKline still holds the record for the largest payout in history at $3 billion.
So, treating pharma as the enemy doesn’t make anyone safer, but it will stifle innovation and delay technological advances.
After vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was nominated for health and human services secretary by President-elect Donald Trump, many people took great joy in watching pharma stocks plunge. Of course, what that means is that people may be losing their jobs, or millions who need drugs to live will have to pay more.
The United States is the leading pharma manufacturer in the world, spending more on R&D than virtually the entire world combined. While anti-pharma nuts are scaremongering about vaccines causing autism, drug companies are plowing tens of billions of dollars into curing cancer and a slew of new vaccines that save lives. Who’s doing better for society?
Critics, of course, love to tack the word “big” onto the name of industries they dislike so they can create the impression of undue, nefarious, monopolistic power. Big Grocery. Big Oil. And so on. Pharma is big, indeed, because it’s impossible for it to be small. No one is bringing major drugs to the marketplace by tinkering with chemistry sets in garages and selling their concoctions in mason jars. It takes about a decade and massive expenditure in capital, around $2 billion to $3 billion on average, to create a new product. Though, the chances that a drug ever sees the marketplace are exceptionally low. Around 90% of all new drugs fail in clinical trials.
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Why would anyone invest in this sector if there wasn’t the possibility of a big reward? Deriding the big profits of pharma, a long-standing tactic of the Left, is now a growing concern on the Right. Price controls, another idea also sadly growing among populists, would also inhibit industry from helping us. And, yes, drug companies make a lot of money, though its margins aren’t particularly high. Like all of us, drug companies deserve to get paid for their work, talents, knowledge, and experience. The profit-motive saves lives.
Inevitably, some of the people reading this piece will accuse me of being paid off by big drug companies. The reflexively anti-corporate nature of modern politics demands it. No, I’m a sucker. I hold these opinions without any financial assistance from Big Pharma. Though, I will admit, I have numerous acquaintances and relatives who, to one extent or another, need pharmaceuticals to survive or live normal lives. You, no doubt, know similar people. It might be worth remembering them before you spread the newest conspiracy theory.