Making Excuses for Pharma

‘Did your Dog eat your Homework?’

Here is a list of the most unusual excuses employees gave for missing work, offered up by employers. These are real-life examples. Some of these do really beg for further explanation.

1. I got sunburned at a nude beach and can’t wear clothes.
2. I woke up in Canada.
3. I got caught selling an alligator.
4. My buddies locked me in the trunk of an abandoned car after a weekend of drinking.
5. My mom said I was not allowed to go to work today.
6. A bee flew in my mouth.
7. I’m just not into it today.
8. I accidentally hit a nun with my motorcycle.
9. A random person threw poison ivy in my face and now I have a rash.
10. I’m convinced my spouse is having an affair and I’m staying home to catch them.
11. I was injured chasing a seagull.
12. I have a headache from eating hot peppers.

 

The Inverse Care Law.

Back in 2003 Alan Cassels wrote a searing exposure of the operations of Big Pharma in New Internationalist. Quoting Julian Tudor-Hart Alan wrote:

“Thirty years ago the British physician, Julian Tudor-Hart published his famous ‘inverse care law’: ‘those who most need medical care are the least likely to get it.’

Modern pharmaceutical research is playing Dr Hart’s law out on a macabre global scale. While the debilitating diseases of the poor – such as malaria, tuberculosis and sleeping sickness – have few or no treatments, the drug companies are busy working on cures for a ballooning set of ‘made-up’ diseases of the rich and privileged.”

Pharma have been making excuses ever since.

But maybe we are wrong to blame the Industry for their behaviour.

The problem is one of definition.

If Pharma were to claim that they were:

1. In the marketing business, not the biochemical development business.
2. Interested primarily in the creation of wealth for shareholders and investors.
3. Under no obligation to actually do any good for the human race.
4. Happy to flout regulations as long as the fines imposed are within budget guidelines.
5. Willing to cheat, lie and falsify data in order to improve sales.
6. Comfortable operating in a sinister moral vacuum.

Then we would not have a problem.

There would be no reason to excuse their behaviour.

A Different Story.

But their mission statements tell a quite different story.

This is what they say about themselves:

“The country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. Pharma is leading the way in the search for new cures

 

It’s sadly reminiscent of another story.

The story of the emperor’s clothes.

You remember how he got sunburnt and couldn’t wear any clothes?

Yeah, right.

(Tomorrow's Post: Pharma Overboard)