42
Yes, with a number of caveats.
Shkreli's company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, promised to give free access to Daraprim to some patients in need after the initial price-hike controversy arose.
Here is a timeline:
February 2015: Martin Shkreli founded Turing Pharmaceuticals.
September 2015: Turing Pharmaceutical raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 ...
31
Depends on how you define "profitable". But either way it's not the top one.
I couldn't find more recent data, but in 2008 pharmaceutical industry wasn't the most profitable, although it was high in various rankings, not so high in others (source CNN):
Profit as percentage of revenue
Network and Other Communications Equipment 28.8%
Mining, Crude-Oil ...
21
The closest I could find was this (see also here):
He also promised: "If you cannot afford the drug we will give it away for free."
This was after the backlash because of the severe price inflation. I found no evidence that he personally or the company ever actually followed up on that (I doubt it though).
15
As an ER physician who routinely uses fentanyl to treat acute pain in patients, I can confirm that 250 mcg (0.25 mg) would be a potentially lethal dose in some circumstances.
When I use fentanyl to treat pain a usual starting dose would be roughly 1 mcg/kg given intravenously. Because fentanyl acts rapidly and wears off quickly, we can give multiple doses ...
15
There are a couple questions here, so I'll address them seperately.
Does British Sugar provide Marijuana to GW Pharmaceuticals from a 45 Acre cannabis farm?
Yes, however the amount of land being provided to GW Pharmaceuticals is an insignificant portion of the actual land that British Sugar uses to grow crops, and likely has little impact on its bottom ...
13
Yes, this was studied in Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Prescription Medication Use In Medicare Part D Health Affairs July 2016 vol. 35 pages 1230-1236 :
In states with medical marijuana laws, pain medication was reduced by 1,826 daily doses filled per physician per year.
Ultimately, we estimated that nationally the Medicare program and its enrollees ...
11
tl:dr
Yee-es?!? The pharmaceuticals in the US are subsidising something. But what that is is certainly not anything that benefits the rest of the world. The sentences in the claim in question are blatant lies. US prices end up as profits for a large part and are not reinvested, certainly not into research and development of new drugs, as the industry likes ...
11
Whew, lots of questions.
Does aspirin reduce risk of heart-disease or stroke?
Yes
The Antithrombotic Trialists' Collaboration published Collaborative meta-analysis of randomised trials of antiplatelet therapy for prevention of death, myocardial infarction, and stroke in high risk patients. BMJ. 2002 Jan 12;324(7329):71-86.
It found:
Aspirin (or ...
11
tl;dr: The link between TA-65 and anti-aging is not substantiated by any evidence that meets accepted scientific standards.
An answer to this question was posted to this question by (now deleted) user TA-65, which answer purportedly affirmed the existence of a link between TA-65 and anti-aging.
I reproduce the answer, properly down-voted into oblivion, as ...
11
OK.
I'm trying to trace this story through the steps, but the simplest answer is
What proof is there that these capsules contain powdered human flesh
obtained from dead babies?
None. Or at least, none has been provided.
The main source for the vast majority of these news stories in the western media appears to be an AFP Newswire story. This story ...
8
There's a group of molecule called Protocadherin-2 (Pcad-2) that
become visible along the nerve fiber in the brain stem at the 8th week, and spread over the entire brain at the 11th week. At the 18th week, however, expression in the nerve fascicles, which had been visible by that time, was no longer visible or had decreased. These results suggest that ...
7
A DEA publication states:
Although the total quantity of fentanyls seized may appear small
relative to other illicit drugs, fentanyl is more lethal to potential
users than other illicit drugs due to its extremely small lethal dose
(approximately 2 milligrams).
And I can't find a clear statement of this, but various references suggest that people (...
7
Since you mention "infant" in the question, the most relevant systematic review I was able to find, is "Effectiveness of treatments for infantile colic: systematic review" BMJ 1998;316:1563
This evaluates 27 clinical trials, and among the conclusions are:
No benefit was shown for simethicone
It should be noted that "infant colic" refers to babies ...
7
Strepsils
My packet of strepsils contains a leaflet saying each lozenge contains
2,4-Dichlorobenzyl alcohol 1.2 mg
Amylmetacresol 0.6 mg
Levomenthol 8.0 mg.
2,4-Dichlorobenzyl alcohol and Amylmetacresol
A throat lozenge containing amyl meta cresol and dichlorobenzyl alcohol has a direct virucidal effect on respiratory syncytial virus, influenza A and ...
7
There has not been any statin vs statin comparisons, but there was a comparison of different dosages of the same statin. 10,001 patients were either assigned to treatment with either 10 mg of atorvastatin or 80 mg of atorvastatin. The primary end point was the occurrence of a first major cardiovascular event, defined as death from CHD, nonfatal non-procedure-...
7
Yes, at least compared to simply dressing wounds, specifically to abrasive wounds, there are studies supporting the claim. Neosporin is the "triple-antibiotic" ointment comprised of polymyxin B, bacitracin, and neomycin (source). A clinical study from June of 2000 reports that the combination minimizes scarring.
The triple-antibiotic ointment was ...
7
It is clearly not Pfizer's Facebook page.
The URL is misspelt:
Correct: https://www.facebook.com/Pfizer/
Incorrect: https://www.facebook.com/Pzifer/
The official page has a Blue Tick indicating it is verified. The fake page does not.
The official page has the latest logo. The fake page has a logo that was replaced in 2009 (and oddly angled).
The ...
7
Let's start with a simpler question, and build up.
Do drugs last longer than the expiration date?
Yes, for most but not all drugs.
The American Medical Association were concerned about the wastage of pharmaceuticals due to expiry dates. The US Department of Defense has been collecting data on this, because they stockpile a billion dollars worth of drugs (...
6
Is it true that laughing gas is not used to reduce labor pains because it is cheap?
There seems to be a range of factors contributing to why N2O is not readily available in the US.
Nitrous Oxide for Labor Analgesia: Expanding Analgesic Options for Women in the United States
One major barrier to implementation of N2O services in the United States has ...
6
CAUTION: I believe this is a publicity statement by the director, not based in fact. The drug can't be known until he specifies it.
Points to Consider
The sixth week is time when the brain is started forming. In other words the glob of cells started forming brain and heart like organs. Cerebral cortex is formed and synapses starts connecting.
If such kind ...
6
This claim is pretty hard to specifically pin down. What is a "scientists studying antimicrobial resistance" exactly? Do we limit the definition to professors who have been exclusively focused on AMR for 10 years or more? Does a grad student who is doing their masters thesis on a topic tangentially related to AMR count? Either way, I cannot do a world census ...
5
Per unit fentanyl is far more lethal than other typical opiates
Fentanyl is in the same class of medical compounds as heroin (medically known as diamorphine) and is also used in medially supervised pain relief. Both are opioids and both are dangerous because of the consequences of taking too much. The medical guides (this is from the British National ...
5
The word you may be looking for is "iatrogenic":
In the United States an estimated 225,000 deaths per year have
iatrogenic causes, with only heart disease and cancer causing more
deaths.[1]
Some iatrogenic effects are clearly defined and easily recognized,
such as a complication following a surgical procedure. Less obvious
ones require ...
3
Brian Hunt´s answer is completely correct, but let me add some important facts regarding "And finally the meat of the whole thing. The results of the study show only that T-Cells who had short Telomeres benefited significantly, and that if you've never contracted CMV - your T-Cells might not benefit at all".
There are papers published that indicate that ...
3
Here is a recommended curriculum on that subject, published by the American Medical Student Association: Evidence and Recommendations for a
Model PharmFree Curriculum
Here is the AMSA's advocacy web site on that subject: http://www.pharmfree.org/
I don't know to what extent they've been successful at introducing any such courses at medical schools.
The ...
3
Fentanyl is about as lethal as nicotine, about 1 mg/kg, but we don't see people dropping dead from smoking cigarettes which each contain about 8-20 mg of nicotine, although long term the tar in cigarettes kill around ten times as many people as opioids, in the US.
What makes current opioids so lethal is the dosing methods. Injecting an amount that isn't ...
2
Arguably the modern drug era started with the discovery of penicillin in Alexander Fleming, Professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary's Hospital in London in 1928 with purification developed in Oxford
It was Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and their colleagues at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University who turned penicillin from a laboratory ...
2
This is from a researcher in the field, and while it doesn't give any hard numbers, it does support the general idea of few US researchers having been involved, at least for quite some time:
The Veterans
Administration has a wonderful research support system that allowed me to get
started and funded me virtually constantly for the 16 years I worked ...
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