3 ms·
How much profit is there in current antibiotics? Only a few of the newer ones are still patented. Aren't the bulk of prescribed antibiotics generics? I don't
by harshreality 13y ago
How much profit is there in current antibiotics? Only a few of the newer ones are still patented. Aren't the bulk of prescribed antibiotics generics?
I don't think it's because of a difference in the profit to be made by solutions (green energy vs antibiotic alternatives), but rather because of a difference in the profit to be made by the status quo (hydrocarbon-based energy companies stand to make huge profits if they can delay the development of green alternatives until there's a major energy crunch).
Antibiotic resistance is more obviously traceable to antibiotics use. The greenhouse gasses link to global warming exists, but the skeptics have leverage against it: Western countries contribute more to global warming per capita (right?), but China and India are contributing more overall; anything we try to do is going to be very expensive and cause a modest slow-down of warming at best; the Earth has been warmer than it is now; global warming models are incomplete; the Earth is a very complex dynamic system that might buffer global warming in unknown ways before we get to a crisis.
It's more difficult to argue against antibiotic resistance in bacteria being a problem when we can see resistance develop in a lab, and when we've seen the dire consequences of plagues in documented history.
- anon1385 13y agoEven the existence of direct and easy to understand causal links doesn't prevent corporate disinformation campaigns if there is money involved. Just look at the history of tobacco propaganda. Cato is still feeding the media articles and quotes denying that there are health risks from second hand smoke. If you want to find an industry where antibiotics crate large profit then look at industrial farming.
- harshreality 13y agoWhat percentage of antibiotics used in industrial animal farms are still patented, and what's the profit margin and net profit from those antibiotics at biotech companies?
- anon1385 13y agoFarms use the majority of antibiotics: http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/07/what-usda-doesnt-want-you-know-about-antibiotics-and-factory-farms http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2011/07/what-usda-do... Altogether, the US meat industry uses 29 million pounds of antibiotics every year. To put that number in perspective, consider that we humans in the United States—in all of our prescription fill-ups and hospital stays combined—use just over 7 million pounds per year. Thus the vast bulk of antibiotics consumed in this country, some 80 percent, goes to factory animal farms.
- haldujai 13y agoActually you're quite right. There aren't any significant profits in the development of new antibiotics (right now) but that is changing as more and more resistance is popping up. Additionally there are new treatments being investigated such as phage therapy (albeit this more of a revival) heavy metals and bacteriocins (protein based).