Re: Lobby group wants insulin inquiry
Posted by Dale on Mar 01, 2002 at 09:27
(204.212.222.9)Re: Lobby group wants insulin inquiry (mara)
it seems to me that if companies spend some of the alloted advertising money to continue producing 'old insulin' for the 250 or so people that it was suggested that need it, then that would be good advertising for the company.Has it worked in the past? No. Look at all the people who believe drug companies are evil. http://www.voa.gov/special/dev-aids-drugs-cost021901.html It doesn’t matter that they donate a large part of their profit to supplying free drugs to anyone who needs them. http://www.thebody.com/afford/free.html
Ok, if every dollar that is spent by the US government can be considered to come from Social Security then I guess you can take “advertising” dollars for this project as long as I can call them “working people’s salary” dollars. Doesn’t seem like a very good idea to forcibly withhold money the working class needs to feed their children just to support a few people who need this to be able to eat candy, but if that is what you evil liberals insist on doing…
if the number of people who use 'old insulin' is small, and the process has been used before and does not require new nethodology or materials, it doesn't seem that it would be too much money to promote the company's positive public relations.Isn’t that what I said a long time ago? (A little government help would be the compassionate thing to do. So here we have 250 people with a problem. Let’s assume $10,000/person/year would solve the problem. $2.5M might not be a bad price to pay. But if it is $1M/person/year and there were 10,000 people with the problem? That is where the private companies should be interested. http://www.scienceagogo.com/message_board/messages/1061.shtml )
Government help of a couple of million – yes. Forcing one or two specific companies to spend several million that they could use for other purposes such as employee’s salaries – no way. If a touchy-feely Ben & Jerry’s wants to go into the business, that is their decision. If a shrewd Enron-like drug company figures a way to make a profit from 250 people, that’s ok also. But if no one volunteers and the government doesn't step in and pay the bill, then 250 people will die and I think that is a survival of the fittest issue.
supplying a new product that required a lot of research and development would be another topic, but 'old insulin' has had previous production, it is not a new product.<Liberal-think ON> You’re right – it isn’t much money. I think you ought to fund it. We don’t know how much this is going to cost yet so please send a blank check. We’ll be sure to write up a press release that gives you some credit. You’re cooperation may be appreciated but if you don’t immediately send us a blank check it only proves how truly evil you really are. <Liberal-think OFF> (I think I could get used to this liberal think.)