jcitron quote:

"Getting the PDF and the MJF involved won't happen easily. They're taken care of way too well by big pharma and other influential people. If they were to make waves and squeak too loudly, they would lose the very hands that are feeding them."

I agree. All of the orgs rely heavily on pharma aid (hey "Pharma Aid"!? - maybe we should recruit Willie Nelson as our spokesperson!), including PAN, our political advocacy arm.

I'm not sure they could survive without them; I'm not sure they want to. MJFF is innovatively partnering with "industry" in some research projects - they see the need to fund the part of the drug pipeline called the "valley of death" (where new drugs die) - the piece between designing the drug and making it a reality - instrumental in helping get new treatments to market.

We need to be able to be discerning enough to separate good from bad pharma behavior. Pharma needs to be more discerning as well - deal with the obvious criminal behavior while still doing their job. And the orgs also need to be discerning; they should be able to explain to us how they can continue to ignore (completely, it seems) bad behavior in order to get their money. Seems like they are in a position to speak out on these issues; they are obviously more powerful than patients - should they be challenging the status quo?

I wish they would. If pharma needs org financial help to pass through Death Valley, then maybe orgs should make that help available with strings attached.

Question: do the Pharmas need the extra cash to get over the hump to preseve big profits? Or does Death Valley represent an actual loss?