Questions tagged [pharmaceutical]
Chemical substances given to people intended to cure disease or alleviate symptoms of disease.
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Does the COVID vaccine contain Graphene Hydroxide nano razor blades?
Psiram has a page about conspiracy theories around covid vaccines and them supposedly containing graphene oxide and graphene hydroxide. They link to credible sources debunking the claim that vaccines ...
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Was heroin originally developed as a cure for morphine addiction?
The video What Does Heroin Do To Your Body? claims that heroin was originally developed by the Bayer pharmaceutical company as a treatment for tuberculosis and morphine addiction. Is this true?
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Do African countries using Ivermectin have a better Covid-19 situation?
In the great Ivermectin debate, one frequently mentioned argument on the pro-side is a comparison among African countries. They argue that a set of countries in Africa having significantly lower cases ...
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Was Donald Trump treated with pharmaceuticals derived from fetal stem cells?
A post on www.twitter.com [link] has garnered over 100K retweets and 345K likes which states:
So it turns out the monoclonal antibodies that Trump is on are from fetal stem cells. So Trump is being ...
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Does limiting the price of pharmaceuticals lower the number of new treatments produced?
A recent article in Forbes arguing against the latest US Government proposals on drug pricing argued the following:
Everywhere they've been tried, price controls have reduced biopharmaceutical ...
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Does storing medicine at recommended temperatures prolong its life?
Many medical drugs contain directions to store them in certain temperature ranges - typically at room temperatures.
For Example:
Storage: Store at 20° to 25° C (68° to 77° F) ...
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Is drug testing done on extremely poor people?
I was told about a book "The Body Hunters: Testings New Drugs on the World's Poorest Patients" by Sonia Shah. It was published by The New Press, and it had an approving quote from Publisher's Weekly ...
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Is this Pfizer’s official Facebook page?
This Facebook page purports to be that of Pfizer, but it contains some unusual posts.
However, there is another Pfizer Pharmaceutical page with a lot more Facebook Likes, so I’m not sure if this is ...
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In the past did Martin Shkreli offer free medication for those who could not afford it?
Martin Shkreli was a businessman in the pharmaceutical industry who became famous several years ago when his company increased some drug prices by a huge factor.
I recently watched this video of him ...
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Did the husbands of Theresa May and Victoria Atkins (then British PM and drugs minister) profit from the sale of medicinal cannabis?
As read in this link:
RT
The cannabis for Epidiolex is being provided from a 45-acre cannabis farm in the UK operated by British Sugar, whose links to Tory ministers were exposed in February when ...
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Do pricey medicines in the USA subsidise R&D for the rest of the world?
A recent (February 2018) report by the US government Council of Economic Advisors makes the following argument (my highlights):
The United States both conducts and finances much of the ...
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Was very little or no new medication developed in the USSR?
Prof. Robert (Haim) Belmaker, head of the Israeli Psychiatric Association, spoke today (2018-01-05) on the סדר יום / Daily Agenda radio program (Note this is a program in Hebrew).
At some point in the ...
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How lethal is Fentanyl in humans?
In this video by CNN's Sanjay Gupta entitled "How dangerous is Fentanyl?", he can be heard saying at the end
"[Fentanyl] is so powerful that just a quarter of a milligram can be fatal"
Is that ...
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Are there fewer than 500 people researching antibiotic resistance?
The emergence of anti-microbial resistance in the bugs that cause infectious diseases has been called the biggest threat to modern medicine. For example:
England’s chief medical officer has warned of ...
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Are the majority of modern cancer drugs useless?
Cancer is one of those diseases that cause dread in its victims and their families. Though many are treatable or even curable, many others are not and there is great pressure on medics to offer any ...
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Does access to legal marijuana reduce dependence on opiates and other drugs?
It has recently been reported in several news sources that places where access to marijuana has been legalised have seen significant decreases in the use of other, more dangerous, drugs.
In an ...
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In states where medical marijuana laws are passed, did prescription painkiller sales decrease?
I recently heard that US states where medical marijuana laws are passed have seen a decrease in prescription painkillers sales.
For the study, researchers analyzed all deaths caused by opioid ...
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Is nitrous oxide not used during labor in US hospitals because it is cheaper?
In much (most?) of the world, women are able to use laughing gas (nitrous oxide) to relieve pain during childbirth, but this is almost never available to women in the United States.
Several websites (...
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Are people overdosing as part of a "Paracetamol Challenge"?
I'm seeing stories such as this Daily Mail article, claiming that there's a craze amongst teenagers to basically play chicken with paracetamol (acetaminophen).
a dangerous online trend has ...
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Would Mefloquine be approved under today's regulations?
The anti-malarial drug Mefloquine (aka Lariam, Mephaquin or Mefliam) is known to frequently induce strong neurologic side effects.
I have heard a number of times that this drug would fail to get ...
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Is Amovir an effective anti-viral drug?
According to this article (in French) on the (usually respectable) website, Capital, Robert Vachy discovered an drug named Amovir which destroys viral envelopes. According to the article, the anti-...
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Is CPH4 from science fiction movie 'Lucy' real?
In the science-fiction film Lucy, the titular character takes a drug called CPH4 that increases her brain capacity.
The writer and director of the film, Luc Besson, claims in several interviews that ...
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Has medical prescribing become dominated by marketing rather than evidence?
Recent books by critics of the pharmaceutical industry (such as David Healy's Pharmageddon and Ben Goldacre's Bad Pharma) have highlighted problems in the way the industry promotes its products.
In a ...
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Is "treatment induced injury" one of the leading causes of death and disability?
David Healy's latest blog warns against the credulity of doctors in the face of vast marketing efforts by pharmaceutical firms. In making a general argument about how the medical profession ought to ...
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Are there no courses to teach medics how to handle pharmaceutical marketing?
David Healy, the controversial author of, inter alia, Pharmageddon rails against the credulity of many doctors in his latest blog arguing, for example:
Recent estimates suggest companies spend over ...
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Is Champix safe?
There are various reports of people feeling depressed and suicidal having taken Champix. What is the truth about this stop-smoking-pill?
The Daily Mail tell the story of a girl who took it and tried ...
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Are 'wind drops' (active ingredient Simeticone) effective in relieveing wind and colic symptoms?
Marketed under a variety of names in different countries are infant 'wind drops' which have as the active ingredient Simeticone.
This is claimed to work by
helping small trapped gas bubbles join ...
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Do typical modern pharmaceutical firms spend more on marketing than on R&D?
Developing new drugs is an expensive process. As a result the pharmaceutical industry spends a lot on R&D (15% of turnover is not unusual and is higher than most other major industries: see report ...
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Do 90% of new drugs not improve over previous drugs?
An article in the german online newspaper Spiegel Online starts with the headline
90 Prozent aller neuen Medikamente taugen nichts (90 percent of new drugs are no good)
The article is a about a ...
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Is the pharmaceutical industry the most profitable business in the United States?
The Russia Today article Pharmageddon: America’s bitter pill claims
The pharmaceutical industry remains the most profitable business in the US. More success and financial gain for the companies ...
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Have throat lozenges been shown to be ineffective?
I am currently suffering a sore throat. I have purchased some Betadine (gargleable iodine) which I believe and hope actually helps reduce the extent of the infection.
At the risk of derision, I will ...
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Has the primary benefit of statins in reducing early deaths never been fully tested in comparative trials?
Ben Goldacre, in his sustained critique of the way the pharmaceutical industry and its regulators fall far from the standards of reliable evidence (Bad Pharma), makes an astounding claim (p193 of the ...
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Did pills from China seized in South Korea contain the powdered flesh of dead babies?
According to CBS news (May 7, 2012) South Korea cracks down on human flesh capsules from China
(AP) SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea has seized thousands of smuggled
drug capsules filled with ...
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Does neosporin reduce scarring?
It is a widely held belief, and oft-advertised property of neosporin that its use reduces scarring, especially as opposed to other triple antibiotic ointments.
For example: Livestrong
Neosporin ...
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Does a molecule called TA-65 reverse aging in humans?
In the article Fountain of youth? Apr. 14, 2012, Written by: Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, QMI Agency, the author claims:
Today more than 8,000 scientific articles have been reported on the importance of ...
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Does an aspirin a day have health benefits?
I have heard that taking an a pill of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA aka Aspirin) a day can help reduce the risk of heart disease, strokes, cancer and now Alzheimer's. From the linked article to WebMD:
We'...
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Are generic drugs equivalent to the "name-brand" alternatives?
I can buy 300 10-mg tablets of Loratadine for about $15, and 90 10-mg tablets of Claritin™ costs about $35. These days my health insurance charges me $50 for the name-brand, and as little as $2.91 (...
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Do drug companies purposely avoid cures to make more money on treatment?
I've heard many times the claim that drug companies purposely make treatments and avoid selling/researching cures instead. Are there any documented cases of this behavior happening or any concrete ...
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