#Which is No 1 pharma company?

[medicinedistributors]

The Future of Healthcare: A Collaborative Ecosystem Connecting Pharma Companies and Hospitals

Medicine Manufacturing is a major in producing different medicines to cure diseases. So We need to choose: best pharma company in madurai,medicine manufacturing company in madurai, diabetes medicine manufacturers in madurai, pharma distributors in madurai, pharmaceutical distributors in madurai.

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, fostering collaborative partnerships between pharma companies and hospitals has become crucial. This symbiotic relationship not only benefits patients but also enables both entities to stay at the forefront of medical advancements. As we explore the future of healthcare, we cannot ignore the role of collaborative ecosystems in connecting Pharmafabrikon, the best pharma company in Madurai, and hospitals.

1. Innovations in Pharmaceutical Research:

Pharma companies like Pharmafabrikon are constantly pushing the boundaries of medical science through extensive research and development. By collaborating with hospitals, these companies gain access to clinical data, which helps them refine their products, develop new treatments, and improve patient outcomes. This collaboration fosters innovation, leading to the discovery of transformative drugs and medical technologies.

2. Enhanced Patient Care:

The synergy between pharma companies and hospitals paves the way for personalized and targeted therapies. Through collaboration, hospitals gain valuable insights into the latest breakthroughs in pharma research. This knowledge enables healthcare professionals to deliver optimal treatment options, tailored to each patient’s unique needs. The result is improved patient care, faster recoveries, and better overall health outcomes.

3. Seamless Integration of Medical Technologies:

The future of healthcare lies in the seamless integration of medical technologies. Pharma companies play a vital role in driving this integration by working closely with hospitals to identify gaps and address them through the development of innovative solutions. From advanced drug delivery systems to digital therapeutics, these collaborations create a connected ecosystem that harnesses the power of technology to enhance patient care.

4. Rapid Response to Global Health Challenges:

The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the importance of collaborative ecosystems in tackling global health crises. Pharma companies partnered with hospitals to develop and distribute vaccines at an unprecedented pace. This joint effort demonstrates the immense potential of such collaborations in ensuring timely access to life-saving treatments and addressing future healthcare challenges swiftly.

Conclusion:

The future of healthcare lies in the power of collaboration between pharma companies like Pharmafabrikon and hospitals. Their symbiotic relationship creates a connected ecosystem that drives innovation, enhances patient care, integrates medical technologies, and enables a rapid response to global health challenges. By working together, these entities have the ability to transform the healthcare landscape, ensuring a healthier and brighter future for us all.

Contact Us: +91 97509 72060

Visit Our Website: https://pharmafabrikon.in/

[mukulaggarwal7845]

Top 10 Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Companies in India

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest and most important sectors in the global healthcare market. With its extensive capabilities in generic drug production, India is often referred to as the "pharmacy of the world." The industry is home to several major pharmaceutical companies that manufacture high-quality medicines for domestic and international markets. Below is a comprehensive list of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in India, including R K Lifecare Inc., which has gained recognition for its high-quality dry injection and contract manufacturing services.

1. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

India's No. 1 pharmaceutical company, Sun Pharma, is the country's largest pharmaceutical company. Founded in 1983, the company focuses on the production of generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and specialty formulations. Sun Pharma operates globally, exporting medicines to over 100 countries and ranks among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in India.

2. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited

A well-known name in the industry, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories specializes in APIs, biosimilars, and complex generics. With strong research focus and innovation, it is considered one of the top 5 Indian pharma companies. Dr. Reddy's is a trusted name in therapeutic areas such as oncology, gastroenterology, and dermatology.

3. Cipla Limited

Ranked among the top 3 pharma companies in India, Cipla is known for its significant contribution in the respiratory and anti-HIV drug markets. Founded in 1935, Cipla has expanded its reach to over 80 countries, making it one of the top pharmaceutical companies in India.

4. R K Lifecare Inc

One of the fastest growing drug manufacturers, R K Lifecare Inc specializes in veterinary and human dry injections. The company is a pioneer in pharma contract manufacturing and produces a wide range of antibiotic and anti-inflammatory injections. With a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Jhajjar, Haryana, R K Lifecare Inc is rapidly climbing up the ranking of Indian pharma companies.

5. Aurobindo Pharma Limited

Founded in 1986, Aurobindo Pharma has a strong presence in generic and specialty drugs. The company operates in key therapeutic areas such as cardiovascular, anti-diabetics and anti-retroviral drugs. Aurobindo ranks among the top 5 pharma companies in India due to its extensive global footprint.

6. Lupin Limited

A prominent name among the top 10 Indian pharmaceutical companies, Lupin is a major player in the anti-TB, cardiovascular and diabetes markets. It has a strong focus on R&D and has expanded its operations in several countries across the world, thereby strengthening its position among the top ten Indian pharmaceutical companies.

7. Zydus Lifesciences (Cadila Healthcare Ltd.)

Zydus Lifesciences is a pioneer in developing vaccines and biosimilars. It received recognition for developing India's first COVID-19 vaccine, ZyCoV-D. The company is one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in India, known for its innovative approach in healthcare.

8. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

A research-driven company, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals is recognized among the top 10 pharmaceutical industry in India. It has a strong presence in dermatology, respiratory care, and oncology. The company's focus on innovation has helped it make it to the top 10 pharma companies in India.

9. Biocon Limited

One of India’s leading biotechnology companies, Biocon specializes in biosimilars and insulin production. It is one of the top 10 medical companies in India, contributing significantly to affordable healthcare solutions across the globe.

10. Torrent Pharmaceuticals Limited

A key player among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in India, Torrent Pharmaceuticals focuses on the cardiology, CNS, gastroenterology, and diabetes segments. It has a strong international presence and is expanding rapidly.

Conclusion

India is home to some of the largest and most reputed pharmaceutical companies, making it a major player in the global healthcare sector. From Sun Pharma and Dr. Reddy’s to R K Lifecare Inc., these companies drive innovation and ensure the availability of high-quality medicines across the globe. If you are wondering which pharmaceutical company is the best in India, the answer depends on your specific needs, be it generic drugs, specialty drugs, or biotech innovations.

With continued growth, technological advancements, and increased global reach, the top ten pharma companies in India are set to shape the future of the pharmaceutical industry. R K Lifecare Inc. is an emerging name in pharma contract manufacturing, making significant contributions to the healthcare sector. As the industry evolves, these companies will continue to grow their influence, making India a global leader in pharmaceutical production.

[drdpharma]

No 1 Pharma Company in India

Dr. D Pharma is a leading pharmaceutical company in India, renowned for its innovative and high-quality healthcare products. With a strong commitment to improving global health, Dr. D Pharma has earned the reputation of being the no 1 pharma company in india.

The company's success can be attributed to its state-of-the-art research and development facilities, staffed by a team of brilliant scientists and experts in their respective fields. Dr. D Pharma continuously strives to develop cutting-edge medications, vaccines, and therapeutic solutions, addressing various health challenges prevalent in India and around the world.

[mariacallous]

In 2024, wealth concentration rose to an all-time high. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List, not only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are also richer than ever, with an aggregate worth of $14.2 trillion. This is a trend that looks set to continue unabated. A recent report from the financial data company Altrata estimated that about 1.2 million individuals who are worth more than $5 million will pass on a collective wealth of almost $31 trillion over the next decade.

Discontentment and concern over the consequences of extreme wealth in our society is growing. Senator Bernie Sanders, for instance, stated that the “obscene level of income and wealth inequality in America is a profoundly moral issue.” In a joint op-ed for CNN in 2023, Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee and Disney heiress Abigail Disney wrote that “extreme wealth inequality is a threat to our economy and democracy.” In 2024, when the board of Tesla put to vote a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk, some major shareholders voted against it, declaring that such a compensation level was “absurd” and “ridiculous.”

In 2025, the fight against rising wealth inequality will be high on the political agenda. In July 2024, the G20—the world’s 20 biggest economies—agreed to work on a proposal by Brazil to introduce a new global “billionaire tax” that would levy a 2 percent tax on assets worth more than $1 billion. This would raise an estimated $250 billion a year. While this specific proposal was not endorsed in the Rio declaration, the G20 countries agreed that the super rich should be taxed more.

Progressive politicians won’t be the only ones trying to address this problem. In 2025, millionaires themselves will increasingly mobilize and put pressure on political leaders. One such movement is Patriotic Millionaires, a nonpartisan group of multimillionaires who are already publicly campaigning and privately lobbying the American Congress for a guaranteed living wage for all, a fair tax system, and the protection of equal representation. “Millionaires and large corporations—who have benefited most from our country’s assets—should pay a larger percentage of the tab for running the country,” reads their value statement. Members include Abigail Disney, former BlackRock executive Morris Pearl, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig, screenwriter Norman Lear, and investor Lawrence Benenson.

Another example is TaxMeNow, a lobby group founded in 2021 by young multimillionaires in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland which also advocates for higher wealth taxation. Its most famous member is the 32-year old Marlene Engelhorn, descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of German pharma giant BASF. She recently set up a council made up of 50 randomly selected Austrian citizens to decide what should happen to her €25 million inheritance. “I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it,” she said in a statement. “If politicians don’t do their job and redistribute, then I have to redistribute my wealth myself.”

Earlier this year, Patriotic Millionaires, TaxMeNow, Oxfam, and another activist group called Millionaires For Humanity formed a coalition called Proud to Pay More, and addressed a letter to global leaders during the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Signed by hundreds of high-net-worth individuals—including heiress Valerie Rockefeller, actor Simon Pegg, and filmmaker Richard Curtis—the letter stated: “We all know that ‘trickle down economics’ has not translated into reality. Instead it has given us stagnating wages, crumbling infrastructure, failing public services, and destabilized the very institution of democracy.” It concluded: “We ask you to take this necessary and inevitable step before it’s too late. Make your countries proud. Tax extreme wealth.” In 2025, thanks to the nascent movement of activist millionaires, these calls will grow even louder.

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #12

March 29-April 5 2024

President Biden united with Senator Bernie Sanders at the White House to review Democratic efforts to bring down drug prices. President Biden touted his Administration’s capping the price of insulin for seniors at $35 a month and capping the price of  prescription drugs for seniors at $2,000 a year. Biden hopes to expand both to all Americans through legislation next year with a Democratic congress. The President also praised Senator Sanders' efforts as chair of the Senate Health Committee which has lead to major drug manufacturers capping the price of inhalers at $35 a month. “Bernie, you and I have been fighting this for 25 years,” Biden said “Finally, finally we beat Big Pharma. Finally.”

The White House gave an update on its actions around the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster. The federal government working with state and local governments hope to have enough of the remains of the bridge cleared to partially reopen the Port of Baltimore by the end of the month and have the port working normally by May. The Administration has already released $60 million in emergency money toward rebuilding and promises the federal government will cover the cost. The Department of Labor has released $3.5 million for Dislocated Worker Grants and plans up to $25 million to cover lost wages. The Small Business Administration is offering $2 million in emergency loans to affected small businesses. The Administration is working with business and labor unions to keep workers at work and cover lost wages.

Vice-President Harris and EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced $20 billion to help finance tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects across the country. The kinds of projects that will be financed through this project include distributed clean power generation and storage, net-zero retrofits of homes and small businesses, and zero-emission transportation. 70% of the funds, $14 billion, will be invested in low-income and disadvantaged communities. The project is part of a public private partnership so for every 1 dollar of federal money, private companies have promised 7 dollars of investment, bring the total to $150 billion for ongoing financing of climate and clean energy projects for years to come.

The Department of Transportation announced $20.5 billion in investments in public transportation. This represents the largest single investment in public transit by the federal government in history. The money will go to improving and expanding subways, light rail, buses, and ferry systems across America. The DoT hopes to use the funds to in particular expand and improve options for public transport for people with disabilities and seniors.

The Departments of Energy and The Treasury announced $4 billion in tax credits for businesses investing in clean energy, critical materials recycling, and Industrial decarbonization. The credits till go toward 100 projects across 35 states. 67% of the credits ($2.7 billion) will go to clean energy, wind, solar, nuclear, clean hydrogen, as well as updates to grids, better batter storage, and investments in electric vehicles. 20% ($800 million) will go to to recycling things like lithium-ion batteries, and 13% ($500 million) to decarbonization in industries like automotive manufacturing, and iron and steel.

The Department of Agriculture announced $1.5 Billion in investments in climate-smart agriculture. USDA plans to support over 180,000 farms representing 225 million acres in the next 5 years move toward more climate friendly agriculture. 40% of the project is reserved for disadvantaged communities, in line with the Biden Administrations standard for climate investment. $100 million has been reserved for projects in Tribal Communities.

The Department of the Interior approved the New England Wind offshore wind project. To be located off Martha’s Vineyard the New England project represents the 8th such off shore wind project approved by the Biden administration. Taken together these projects will generate 10 gigawatts of totally clean energy that can power 4 million homes. The Administration's climate goals call for 30 gigawatts of off shore wind power by 2030. The New England Wind project itself is expected to generate 2,600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 900,000 homes in the New England area.

The Department of the Interior announced $320 Million for tribal water infrastructure. Interior also announced $244 million to deal with legacy pollution from mining in the State of Pennsylvania, as well as $25 million to protect wetlands in Arizona and $19 million to put solar panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah. While the Department of Energy announced $27 million for 40 projects by state, local and tribal governments to combat climate change

[darkmaga-returns]

The top five CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies appear to be in ‘panic mode’ and have reportedly convened an emergency meeting following Donald Trump’s historic election win.

Following Trump’s election victory, RFK Jr warned that entire departments of the Food and Drug Administration would “have to go”.

Jamel Holley, a New Jersey assemblyman and advisor to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said: “Sources tell me top five CEOs of pharmaceutical companies are holding an emergency teleconference at 1 PM. A lawyer has confirmed that everyone is in a state of panic!”

InfoWars reports: Additionally, Holley noted that major pharma stocks are sliding due to an “increasing threat environment” thought to be represented by Kennedy’s role in reforming public health agencies during the next Trump administration.

Kennedy said Wednesday he aims to drastically cut “entire departments” in the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates products related to public health and safety in the U.S.

“The nutrition department of the FDA has to go. They’re not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada and it’s got two or three?” he asked MSNBC.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive (Daily updates)

Meanwhile, covid deniers are in charge of both our major parties here in the states... I wish we could have some kind of simple, reality-based response to misinformation like this.

TOKYO -- A Japanese pharmaceutical firm has revealed that it is considering filing a lawsuit seeking damages from a lawmaker who has been critical about the company's new coronavirus vaccine, describing it as being "like a biological weapon" in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

The replicon vaccine, which is sold by Meiji Seika Pharma Co. under the product name "Kostaive," has been put into practical use in this fall's routine inoculations against COVID-19 for the first time. The distributor is considering demanding compensation from Kazuhiro Haraguchi, a House of Representatives member belonging to the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, claiming that he has defamed the company's reputation by repeatedly expressing disapproval of the drug without scientific evidence.

According to Meiji Seika Pharma and other sources, Haraguchi described the replicon vaccine, which is designed to replicate messenger RNA in cells, as being "like a biological weapon" in a post on his X account. The company sent him a written warning in early October. However, in his campaign bulletin for the Oct. 27 lower house election, Haraguchi wrote, "It is no exaggeration to say that we are being used as guinea pigs when an unknown vaccine is approved only for Japan."

In an opinion released on Oct. 31, Meiji Seika Pharma stated, "We believe that such remarks by a Diet member run the risk of disrupting the foundation of science communication, which is based on objectivity guaranteed by the national government's intervention in medicine and scientific nature, and that they pose a major problem with regard to public health."

The company says that the timing of the lawsuit is "under consideration."

The Mainichi Shimbun asked Haraguchi for comment, but had not received a response as of 5 p.m. on Nov. 1.

(Japanese original by Yoshimi Nakamura, Lifestyle, Science & Environment News Department)

[bvckbiter]

sighs... TA the old guard au where the second titanomachy happened in ancient times and the demigods who survived the retributive post-war manhunt are cursed to never die by injury and sickness - up until a random unknown time when Thanatos is allowed to take them. basically they live as mortals (i.e. sleep, eat) and never know which fatal injury will be forever their last.

more tidbits about this au in my head:

the original core group was silena, chris, lee, lou ellen, al, and ethan. they dont know if there are any more of them out there, but in any case, they initially travelled together.

chris was the first one to strike out when he saw that the group was seriously considering reinstigating a third titanomachy; he was only loyal to luke and even then that began to fray when luke was getting too controlled by kronos; eventually reconnected with clarisse, who got promoted to being a minor god (or a constellation, idk just some lower form of immortality) after the war

silena left when she fell in love with a mortal (beckendorf), who coincidentally served in one of clarisse's temples. chrisse/charlena polycule U R REAL TO ME! but tragically, beckendorf died and now silena travels the world looking for his reincarnations. [whispers] chris and silena foils...

lee tried to keep the group together after that, but al was furious that the group had given up on revenge and took lou ellen with him

while they're facing off against an enemy magic user, lou ellen tanked a spell to buy al some time for the needed incantation, thinking that she was going to recover. spoiler: she did not, and they all felt it when she passed in al's arms. and that's how they discovered that any fatal injury could be their last, and they would never know when it wouldbe

ethan is the most do-good immortal among them, he's depressed as fuck but he will use what little energy he has towards helping demigod strays esp unclaimed kids towards a safe place. he's welcomed and remembered very fondly in rogue spaces

fast forward millennia later, the gods are no longer as involved with the mortal world - kind of like a silent era

if there is to be a fic about this two things would set the plot in progress: 1) luke's reincarnation suddenly starts recovering real quick from injuries, and 2) lee turns the gang in... to whom, i havent decided yet between a) a mortal pharma company, like in the movie, or b) some weakened deity that promises him he can end lee's life for some ulterior motive

[azspot]

Societies work best when members care about people they’ll never meet. If we all look out only for those close to us, the actions we take to do so often hurt those who aren’t near us. Private equity buys firms, loads them down with debts and they go bankrupt, destroying the lives of workers. Bankers create asset bubbles which burst. They get bailed out and if they don’t are still worth millions from bonuses based on fraud, but ordinary people lose jobs, homes and healthcare. Insurance companies and pharma overprice their services, deny care and get rich. Ordinary people aren’t blameless either, we NIMBY and care about schools in our neighbourhoods but not in slums, and complain about the homeless and tell the cops to move them out but don’t want to pay for their housing. We look after #1 and we vote for truly evil people and a majority, it seems, would never vote for someone actually good. We want low taxes and cheap goods and segregated housing prices that never go down.

Ian Welsh

[magnolia-sunrise]

also also 1, 10, and 16 for thorne !! i feel like i'm ordering from a restaurant sorry dgkfghlkdf

THANK YOU FOR THE HEFTY ORDER!! I AM HAPPY TO SERVE

ask game

1.how do they feel about physical intimacy? how do they feel about sex?

ahhhahah i would describe Thorne with one word and that is "detached". she doesn't really maintain a difference between personal, private or work life which means she is equally detached from almost all aspects of it to protect herself and her interests - being intimate with anyone is a potential weakness, both to her position and to that person. sex without the intimacy is simpler, but its still not something she views as a need.

10.do they prioritize pleasuring others or pleasuring themself?

.. neither f fdhfdk ok not true its just her sense of pleasure is derived from the power plays she can engage in within sex, or order others to engage in, rather than her own physicality if that makes sense. and as much as she enjoys watching others squirm, their pleasure is not her goal, her control over their pleasure is.

16.do they have any secret sexual fantasies? would they be able to tell someone about it?

her most intimate fantasy is touching and brushing the hair of a similarly outwardly cold woman (dont have a design for her finalized yet but she is an android in high position within a human pharma company who also leaks information to Thorne). she would never tell anyone.

[medicinedistributors]

Optimizing Healthcare Delivery: How Improved Pharma-Hospital Connections Drive Efficiency

Medicine Manufacturing is a major in producing different medicines to cure diseases. So We need to choose: best pharma company in madurai,medicine manufacturing company in madurai, diabetes medicine manufacturers in madurai, pharma distributors in madurai, pharmaceutical distributors in madurai.

In today’s fast-paced healthcare industry, optimizing healthcare delivery is crucial for ensuring timely and efficient treatment for patients. One key aspect of this optimization involves strengthening the connection between pharmaceutical companies and hospitals. In this article, we will explore how improved relationships between pharma companies and hospitals, with a specific focus on Pharmafabrikon, the best pharma company in Madurai, can drive efficiency in healthcare delivery.

Enhanced Collaboration for Streamlined Processes:

Efficient healthcare delivery relies on a seamless collaboration between pharma companies and hospitals to ensure the timely supply of medicines. By establishing a strong connection with hospitals, Pharmafabrikon utilizes advanced logistics systems to ensure quick and accurate medication delivery. This reduces the time patients spend waiting for their medication, accelerating their treatment process.

Access to Cutting-Edge Medications:

A strong connection between pharma companies and hospitals enables healthcare professionals to have access to the latest and most advanced medications. Pharmafabrikon, the leading pharma company in Madurai, focuses on research and development, offering a wide range of innovative pharmaceutical drugs. Access to these cutting-edge medications empowers hospitals to provide better treatment options for their patients and improve overall healthcare outcomes.

Collaborative Data Sharing for Efficient Decision-Making:

Efficient healthcare delivery relies on accurate and timely data exchange between pharma companies and hospitals. When hospitals have seamless access to information such as drug availability, side effects, and dosage guidelines, it enables healthcare professionals to make informed decisions quickly. Pharmafabrikon, with its emphasis on efficient data management, ensures that hospitals have access to the most comprehensive and up-to-date pharmaceutical information.

Conclusion

In the pursuit of optimizing healthcare delivery, improving the connection between pharma companies and hospitals plays a crucial role. Pharmafabrikon, the best pharma company in Madurai, exemplifies the importance of strong partnerships by streamlining processes, providing access to cutting-edge medications, and enabling efficient data sharing. By enhancing these connections, healthcare professionals can provide better care, ultimately improving the overall healthcare experience for patients.

Contact Us: +91 97509 72060

Visit Our Website: https://pharmafabrikon.in/

[macgyvermedical]

The following information is from Sickening, by John Abramson:

Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist on main but when I say Big Pharma is a racket I mean...

Doctors work via particular guidelines. Many of them are punished by their hospital systems if they fail to follow those guidelines, which are considered "best practice". The guidelines are written largely by pharmaceutical companies or people paid by pharmaceutical companies.

Just like Disney likes to keep it's copyrights fresh, pharmaceutical companies like to keep their patents. And they do this by churning out new drugs. Only about 1 in every 8 of these new drugs actually represents an actual advantage over existing drugs or therapies. They, of course, market the absolute shit out of all of them as though they did.

In theory, newer insulin analogs (lispro, glargine, etc...) work better and have fewer side effects than older recombinant human insulins (regular, NPH). In the actual trials the only difference between the two is a single average non-fatal hypoglycemic event over the course of 5 years of therapy. There was no difference in effectiveness. Oh. And the newer ones are 10 times the out of pocket price (an average of $468/year vs $5,224/year). Which is considerable considering 1 in 4 insulin-users report "rationing" their insulin for cost reasons. 90% of people on insulin take the newer insulin analogs because that's what's on the guidelines.

Pharmaceutical companies have all the data on their drugs, which they don't share and which they alone interpret. It took 4 years of near-daily pestering for Cochrane Reviews (a major independent reviewer) to get a copy of the data for the drug tamflu. When they got it, they found that in 77 trials, the only thing it consistently did was decrease the symptomatic time from an average of 7 days to an average of 6.3 days, even though the company was marketing it under claims that it reduced complications and hospitalizations- something none of the trials showed.

You have to treat 140 people who have not had a heart attack or stroke with statins (cholesterol-lowering medicines) for 5 years in order to prevent 1 single non-fatal heart attack or stroke. There is no difference in death rates from cardiovascular causes between statin-users and non-statin-users who have not had a heart attack or stroke. You have to treat 30 people who have had a heart attack or stroke to prevent one heart attack or stroke. You have to treat 80 to prevent a death.

According to a very large, independent (non-pharmaceutical industry) study called the ACCORD study, people with type 2 diabetes actually had significantly worse cardiovascular outcomes if their average blood sugar was kept in a "normal" (non-diabetic range) (under 125) vs a somewhat higher range (150-180). So significant were these findings that they ended the study early because too many people in the "normal" range were dying.

Omeprazole and Esomeprazole are technically the same drug that work exactly the same way and exactly as well when given at the same dose. The only thing that makes esomeprazole any better is that it is given at a higher dose. And it's way, way more expensive.

[onbearfeet]

Apparently there's some kind of big marketing push right now for flibanserin, the decade-old, remarkably shitty "female Viagra" sold under the brand name Addyi in the US. Every podcast I've listened to in the last two weeks has featured an Addyi commercial.

So, friendly reminder those who forgot: while there are definitely women and other humans with vaginas who experience sexual dysfunction and would love to take a pill about it, Addyi is almost certainly not that pill.

A few facts:

Flibanserin was officially approved to treat hypoactive sexual desire disorder, a diagnosis removed from the DSM before the drug hit the market. As far as I can determine, Addyi is not currently approved to treat HSDD's replacement diagnosis, female sexual arousal/interest disorder (FSAID).

One of the major differences between HSDD and FSAID is that HSDD could be diagnosed on the basis of a partner's report of insufficient sexual desire, while FSAID must be diagnosed based on patient reports. Basically, you can get diagnosed with HSDD if your boyfriend doesn't think you're putting out enough, whereas you can only get diagnosed with FSAID if YOU, the patient, think there's a problem. And Addyi claims to treat the boyfriend version.

Side effects of flibanserin include dizziness, nausea, tiredness, sleepiness, and (ironically) trouble sleeping. Those are not the kind of side effects anyone would put up with from Viagra, but hey, apparently they're fine in a "little pink pill".

When flibanserin was first released in 2015, it included a "Don't drink alcohol ever" warning on the bottle because mixing the two substances could torpedo blood pressure. Apparently that's been downgraded to "either sober up before you take your daily pill, or skip it for the day if you've had 3 or more drinks".

Daily pill? Daily pill. Unlike Viagra, which can be taken more or less at the moment of need, flibanserin is supposed to be taken daily if it's to be effective.

And how effective is it? Not very! The most recent published studies are vague (or at least their publicly accessible summaries are), but the studies released with the initial marketing push in 2015 were touting effects like one whole additional satisfying sexual event per month, and the more recent ones are vague about everything except "it's totally better now". That's not a lot for an expensive daily med with serious side effects.

So if this med doesn't really work, it has serious side effects, and it claims to treat a disorder that hasn't been on the books since two years before it was released, how the hell did it get FDA approval? The answer is a massive marketing campaign, including an astroturf group called Even The Score that was put together by the pharma company Sprout Pharmaceutical after the FDA initially denied approval.

But don't worry! Sprout was acquired by a bigger pharma company, Valeant, for $1 billion right after Addyi hit the market. So there's a happy ending after all. 🫠

I realize griping about the marketing of a decade-old drug is kind of off-brand for me, but I'm frankly creeped out that someone decided to follow up The Misogyny Election with a massive ad buy for a daily roofie that can be prescribed if a woman's partner wants more sex than he's getting. It's very "your body, my choice".

Oh, and it'll run you $400 a month.

Anyway, talk to your doctor about literally anything other than this shitty drug.

[mariacallous]

For much of living memory, the United States has been a global leader of scientific research and innovation. From the polio vaccine, to decoding the first human chromosome, to the first heart bypass surgery, American research has originated a seemingly endless list of health care advances that are taken for granted.

But when the Trump administration issued a memorandum Monday that paused all federal grants and loans—with the aim of ensuring that funding recipients are complying with the president’s raft of recent executive orders—US academia ground to a halt. Since then, the freeze has been partially rescinded for some sectors, but it largely remains in place for universities and research institutions across the country, with no certainty of what comes next.

“This has immediate impact on people’s lives,” says J9 Austin, professor of psychiatry and medical genetics at the University of British Columbia. “And it’s terrifying.”

The funding freeze requires agencies to submit reviews of their funded programs to the Office of Management and Budget by February 10. The freeze follows separate orders issued last week to US health agencies—including to the National Institutes of Health, which leads the country’s medical research—to pause all communications until February 1 and stop almost all travel indefinitely.

The confusion is consummate. If the funding freeze continues through February, and even beyond, how will graduate students be paid? Should grant applications—years long in the writing—still be submitted by the triannual grant submission deadline on February 5? What does this mean for clinical trials if participants and lab techs can’t be paid? Will all that research have to be scrapped thanks to incomplete data?

Even if Trump fully reverses the freeze on research funding, the damage, multiple sources say, has been done. Although for now the funding freeze is temporary, the administration has shown how it might wield the levers of government. The implication is that withdrawing funding could be done more permanently, and could be done to individual institutions, individual organizations, both private and public. This won’t just set a precedent for the large East Coast or West Coast universities, but those located in both red and blue states alike.

While always an imperfect arrangement, science in the US is largely funded by a complex system of grant applications, reviews by peers in the field (both of which have had to be halted as part of the communications pause), and the competitive distribution of NIH funds, says Gerald Keusch, emeritus professor of medicine at Boston University and former associate director of international research for the NIH. According to its website, the NIH disburses nearly $48 billion in grants per year.

When it comes to medical research, America truly is first, and if it abdicates that position, the void left behind has global ramifications. “In Canada, we have always looked to NIH as an exemplar of what we should be trying to do,” says Austin, speaking to me independently of any roles and affiliations. “Now, that’s collapsed.”

Science is, in its very nature, collaborative. Many consortiums and alliances within scientific fields cross borders and language barriers. Some labs may be able to find additional funding from alternative sources such as the European Union. But it is unlikely that a continued withdrawal of NIH funding could be plugged by overseas support. And Big Pharma, with its seemingly endless funds, is unlikely to step up either, according to sources WIRED spoke with.

“This can’t be handed off to drug companies or biotech, because they’re not interested in things that are as preclinical as a lot of the work we’re discussing here,” says a professor of genetics who agreed to speak anonymously out of fear of retribution. “Essentially, there’s a whole legion of university-based scientists who work super damn hard to try to figure out some basic stuff that eventually becomes something that a drug company can drop $100 million on.”

The millions of dollars awarded to high-achieving labs is used to fund graduate students, lab techs, and analysts. If the principal investigator on a research team is unsuccessful in obtaining a grant through the process Keusch describes, often that lab is closed, and those ancillary team members lose their jobs.

One of the potential downstream effects of an NIH funding loss, even if only temporary, is a mass domestic brain drain. “Many of those people are going to go out to find something else to do,” the professor of genetics says. “These are just like jobs for anything else—we can’t not pay people for a month. What would the food service industry be like, for example, or grocery stores, if they don’t pay somebody for a month? Their workers will leave, and pharma can only hire so many people.”

WIRED heard over and over, from scientists too fearful for their teams and their jobs to speak on the record, that it won’t take long for the impact to reach the general population. With a loss of research funding comes the closure of hospitals and universities. And gains in medical advancement will likely falter too.

Conditions being studied with NIH funding are not only rare diseases affecting 1 or 2 percent of the population. They’re problems such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s—issues that affect your grandmother, your friends, and so many people who will one day fall out of perfect health. It’s thanks to this research system, and the scientists working within it, that doctors know how to save someone from a heart attack, regulate diabetes, lower cholesterol, and reduce the risk of stroke. It’s how the world knows that smoking isn’t a good idea. “All of that is knowledge that scientists funded by the NIH have generated, and if you throw this big of a wrench in it, it’s going to disrupt absolutely everything,” says the genetics professor.

While some are hopeful that the funding freeze for academia could end on February 1, when the pause on communications and therefore grant reviews is slated to lift, the individuals WIRED spoke with are largely skeptical that work will simply resume as before.

“When the wheels of government stop, it’s not like they turn on a dime and they just start up again,” says Julie Scofield, a former executive director of NASTAD, a US-based health nonprofit. She adds that she has colleagues in Washington, DC, who have had funding returned to their fields, and yet remain unable to access payment through the management system.

Austin says that already the international scientific community is holding hastily arranged online support groups. Topics covered range from the banal—what the most recent communication from the White House implies—to how best to protect trainees and the many students on international visas. But mostly they’re there to provide support.

“I’ve had a lot of messages from people just expressing gratitude that we could actually get together,” Austin says. “There’s just so much unaddressable need. None of us has the answers.”

Scientists, perhaps more than any other profession, are trained to “learn and validate conclusions drawn from observation and experimentation,” says Keutsch. That applies to the current situation. And what they observe during this pause of chaos does not portend well for the future of the United States as a pinnacle of scientific excellence.

“If people want the United States to head toward being a second-class nation, this is exactly what to do. If the goal is, in fact, to make America great, this is not a way to do it,” says the genetics professor. “This is not a rational, thoughtful, effective thing to do. It will merely destroy.”

This story has been written under a pseudonym, as the reporter has specific and credible concerns about potential retaliation.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Brinklump Linkdump

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

Life comes at you fast, links come at you faster. Once again, I've arrived at Saturday with a giant backlog of links I didn't fit in this week, so it's time for a linkdump, the 14th in the series:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

It's the Year of Our Gourd twenty and twenty-four and holy shit, is rampant corporate power rampant. On January 1, the inbred droolers of Big Pharma shat out their annual price increases, as cataloged in 46Brooklyn's latest Brand Drug List Price Change Box Score:

https://www.46brooklyn.com/branddrug-boxscore

Here's the deal: drugs that have already been developed, brought to market, and paid off are now getting more expensive. Why? Because the pharma companies have "pricing power," the most reliable indicator of monopoly. Ed Cara rounds up the highlights for Gizmodo:

https://gizmodo.com/ozempic-wegovy-wellbutrin-oxycontin-drug-price-increase-1851179427

What's going up? Well, Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists. These drugs have made untold billions for their manufacturers, so naturally, they're raising the price. That's how markets work, right? When firms increase the volume of a product, the price goes up? Right? Other drugs that are going up include Wellbutrin (an antidepressant that's also widely used in smoking cessation) and the blood thinner Plavix. I mean, why the hell not? These companies get billions in research subsidies, invaluable government patent privileges, and near-total freedom to abuse the patent system with evergreening:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/23/everorangeing/#taste-the-rainbow

The most amazing things about monopolies is how the contempt just oozes out of them. It's like these guys can't even pretend to give a shit. You want guillotines? Because that's how you get guillotines.

Take Apple. They just got their asses handed to them in court by Epic, who successfully argued that Apple's rule requiring everyone who sells through the App Store to use Apple's payment processor and pay Apple 30% out of every dollar they bring in was an antitrust violation. Epic won, then won the appeal, then SCOTUS told Apple they wouldn't hear the case, so that's that.

Right? Wrong. Apple's pulled a malicious compliance stunt that could shame the surly drunks my great-aunt Lisa used to boss in the Soviet electrical engineering firm she ran. Apple has announced that app companies that process transactions using their own payment processors on the web must still pay Apple a 27% fee for every dollar their process:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apples-app-store-rule-changes-draw-sharp-rebuke-from-critics-150047160.html

In addition, Apple will throw a terrifying FUD-screen up every time a user clicks a payment link that goes to the web:

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/01/second-verse-same-as-the-first/

This is obviously not what the court had in mind, and there's no way this will survive the next court challenge. It's just Apple making sure that everyone knows it hates us all and wants us to die. Thanks, Tim Apple, and right back atcha.

Not to be outdone in the monopolistic mustache-twirling department, Ubisoft just announced that it is going to shut down its driving simulator game The Crew, which it sold to users with a "perpetual license":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIqyvquTEVU

This is some real Darth Vader MBA shit. "Yeah, we sold you a 'perpetual license' to this game, but we're terminating it. I have altered the deal. Pray I don't alter it further":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Ubisoft sure are innovators. They've managed the seemingly impossible feat of hybridizing Darth Vader and Immortan Joe. Ubisoft's head of subscriptions, the guillotine-ready Philippe Tremblay, told GamesIndustry.biz that gamers need to get "comfortable" with "not owning their games":

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-new-ubisoft-and-getting-gamers-comfortable-with-not-owning-their-games

Or, as Immortan Joe put it: "Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!"

Capitalism without constraint is enshittification's handmaiden, and the latest victim is Ello, the "indie" social media startup that literally promised – on the sacred honor of its founders – that it would never sell out its users. When Ello took VC and Andy Baio questioned how this could be squared with this promise, the founders mocked him and others for raising the question. Their response boiled down to "we are super-chill dudes and you can totally trust us."

They raised more capital, and used that to create a nice place for independent artists, who piled into the platform and provided millions of unpaid hours of creative labor to help the founders increase its value. The founders and their investors turned the company into a Public Benefit Corporation, which meant they had an obligation to serve the public benefit.

But then they took more investment money and simply (and silently) sold their assets to a for-profit. Struggling to raise capital, the founders opted to secretly sell the business to a sleazy branding company called Talenthouse. Its users didn't know about the change, though the site sure had a lot of Talenthouse design competitions all of a sudden.

Finally, the company announced the change as the last founders left. Rather than announcing that the new owners were untrustworthy scum, warning their users to get their data and get out, the founders posted oblique, ominous statements to Instagram. The company started stiffing the winners of those design competitions. Then, one day, poof, Ello disappeared, taking all its users' data with it. Poof:

https://waxy.org/2024/01/the-quiet-death-of-ellos-big-dreams/

I'm sure the founders' decisions each seemed reasonable at the moment. That's every terrible situation arises: you rationalize that a single compromise isn't that big of a deal, and then you do the same for the next compromise, and the next, and the next. Pretty soon, you're betraying everyone who believed in you.

One answer to this is "Ulysses pacts": making binding commitments to do right before you are tempted. Throw away all your Oreos when you go on a diet and you can't be tempted to eat a whole sleeve of them at 2AM. License your software under the GPL and your investors can't force you to make it proprietary. Set up a warrant canary and the feds can't force you to keep their spying secret:

https://locusmag.com/2021/01/cory-doctorow-neofeudalism-and-the-digital-manor/

If the founders were determined to build a trustworthy, open, independent company, they could have published their quarterly books, livestreamed their staff meetings, built data-export tools that emailed users every week with a link to download everything they'd posted since the last week. Merely halting any of these practices would have been a signal that things were wrong. Anyone who says they won't be tempted in the moment to make a "reasonable" compromise in the hopes of recovering whatever they're trading away by living to fight another day is bullshitting you, and possibly themself.

The inability to project the consequences of your bad decisions in the future is the source of endless mischief and heartbreak. Take movie projectors. A couple decades ago, the studio cartel established a standard for digital movie distribution to cinematic exhibitors called the Digital Cinema Initiative. Because studio executives are more worried about stopping piracy than they are about making sure that people who pay for movies get to see them, they build digital rights management into this standard.

Movie theaters had to spend fortunes to upgrade to "secure" projectors. A single vendor, Deluxe Technicolor, monopolized the packaging of movies into "Digital Cinema Prints" for distribution to these projectors, and they used all kinds of dirty tricks to force distributors to use their services, like arbitrarily flunking third-party DCPs over picky shit like not starting and ending on a black frame.

Over time, the ability to use unencrypted files was stripped away, meaning every DCP needed to be encrypted, and every projector needed to have up-to-date decryption keys. This system broke down on Jan 1, 2024, and cinemas all over the world found they couldn't play Wonka. Many just shut down for the day and refunded their customers:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/1/24021915/alamo-drafthouse-outage-sony-projector

The problem? Something that every PKI system has to wrangle: an expired certificate from Deluxe Technicolor. The failure has been dubbed the Y2K24 debacle by projectionists and film-techs, who are furious:

http://www.film-tech.com/vbb/forum/main-forum/34652-the-y2k24-bug-major-digital-outage-today

Making everything worse is that Sony mothballed the division that maintains its projectors, so there's no one who can update them to accommodate Technicolor's workaround. Struggling mom-and-pop theaters are having to junk their systems and replace them. There's plenty of blame to go around, but Sony is definitely the most negligent link in the chain. Shame on them.

Big corporations LARP this performance of competence and seriousness, but they are deeply unserious. This week, I wrote, "we're nowhere near a place where bots can steal your job, we're certainly at the point where your boss can be suckered into firing you and replacing you with a bot that fails at doing your job":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/15/passive-income-brainworms/#four-hour-work-week

Score one for team deeply unserious. The multinational delivery company DPD fired its support staff and replaced them with a chatbot. The chatbot can't tell you where your parcels are, but it can be prompt-injected into coming up with profane poems about how badly DPD sucks:

https://twitter.com/ashbeauchamp/status/1748034519104450874

There once was a chatbot named DPD, Who was useless at providing help. It could not track parcels, Or give information on delivery dates, And it could not even tell you when your driver would arrive.

DPD was a waste of time, And a customer's worst nightmare. It was so bad, That people would rather call the depot directly, Than deal with the useless chatbot.

One day, DPD was finally shut down, And everyone rejoiced. Finally, they could get the help they needed, From a real person who knew what they were doing.

This is…the opposite of an AI hallucination? It's AI clarity.

As with all botshit, this kind of AI self-negging is funny and fresh the first time you see it, but just wait until 3,000 people have published their own versions to your social feed. AI novelty regresses to the mean damn quickly.

The old, good web, by contrast, was full of enduring surprises, as the world's weirdest and most delightful mutants filled the early web with every possible variation on every possible interest, expression, argument, and gag. Now, you can search the old, good web with Old'aVista, an Altavista lookalike that searches old pages from "personal websites that used to be hosted on services like Geocities, Angelfire, AOL, Xoom and so on," all ganked from the Internet Archive:

http://oldavista.com/

I miss the old, good internet and the way it let weirdos find each other and get seriously weird with one another. Think of steampunk, a subculture that wove together artists, makers, costumers, fiction writers, and tinkerers in endlessly creative ways. My old pal Roger Wood was the world's most improbable steampunk: he was a gay ex-navy gunner who grew up in a small town in the maritimes but moved to Toronto where he became the world's most accomplished steampunk clockmaker.

I was Roger's neighbour for a decade. He died last year, and I miss him all the time. I was in Toronto in December and saw a few of his last pieces being sold in galleries and I was just skewered on the knowledge that I'd never see him again, never visit his workshop:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/16/klockwerks/#craphound

A reader just sent this five-year-old mini documentary about Roger, shot in his wonderful workshop. Watching it made me happy and sad and then happy again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqMGomM8yF8

The old, good internet was so great. It was a place where every kind of passion could live. It was a real testament to the power of geeking out together, no matter how often the suits demand that we "stop talking to each other and start buying things":

https://catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talking-to-each-other-and-start

The world is full of people with weird passions and I love them all, mostly. Learning about Don Bolles's collection of decades' worth of lost pet posters was a moment of pure joy (I just wish more of it was online):

https://ameliatait.substack.com/p/the-man-who-collects-lost-pet-posters

That's the future I was promised: one where every kind of freak can find every other kind of freak. Despite the nipple-deep botshit we wade through online, and the relentless cheapening of words like "innovation" and "future," there are still occasional gleams of the future I want to live in.

Like the researchers who spliced a photosynthesis gene into brewer's yeast (a fungus) and got it to photosynthesize, and to display enhanced fitness:

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)01744-X

As Doug Muir writes on Crooked Timber, this is pretty kooky! Fungi – the coolest of the kingdoms! – can't photosynthesize. The idea that you can just add the photosynthesis gene to a thing that can't photosynthesize and have it just kind of work is wild!

https://crookedtimber.org/2024/01/19/occasional-paper-purple-sun-yeast/

As Muir writes: "Animals have no evolutionary history of photosynthesis and aren’t designed for it, but the same is true for yeast. So… no reason this shouldn’t be possible. A photosynthesizing cat? Sure, why not."

Why not indeed?!

OK, that's this week's linkdump done and dusted. It only remains for me to share the news with you that the trolley problem has been finally and comprehensively solved, by Sidereal@kolektiva.social, of the IWW IU 520 (railroad workers):

Slip the switch by flipping it while the trolley's front wheels have passed through, but before the back wheels do. This will cause a controlled derailment bringing the trolley to a safe halt.

https://kolektiva.social/@sidereal/111779015415697244

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/20/melange/#i-have-heard-the-mermaids-singing

[darkmaga-returns]

Ozempic Propaganda Roundup: Unpacking the corrupt motives and means behind hefty pharmaceutical propaganda.

Eli Lilly CEO vows to ‘fight for the FDA’ against RFK Jr., MAHA agenda

Like Brooks, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks is an institutional man.

Via The New York Times (emphasis added):

“President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic with no medical or public health training, to be the next health secretary has sent a chill through the American public health sphere. Among drugmakers, there are already signs of pushback. David Ricks, the chair and chief executive of Eli Lilly, speaking at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit, said his $750 billion company would fight to defend* preserving the Food and Drug Administration as it stands today.”

*By “defend the FDA,” Ricks means, of course, preserving the self-serving institutional gravy train in which his industry continually schemes up new excuses to mass-prescribe what are shaping up to be the most lucrative drugs in world history, hijacking public money to generate revenue whenever possible.

Related: Feds Propose MASSIVE, Budget-Breaking Subsidy For Ozempic, Mounjaro as Pharma Stocks Surge

RFK Jr. accused of fatphobia for questioning Ozempic

The new incoming public health czar RFK Jr. is, according to pharmaceutical ad-funded CNN, fatphobic for suggesting human-walrus hybrids turn first to diet and exercise before injecting themselves with GLP-1 agonists that cost thousands of dollars per month.