[ExI] thiel goes south

[William Flynn Wallace]

spike wrote

>
>
> He wanted to test a vaccine for herpes, but in the USA, any such drug test
> costs billions to control and jump through all the government hoops.  This
> means that any treatment which cannot make back that initial investment can
> never be approved by the FDA.  So the protections put in place by the US
> government prevent new therapies and drugs.
>
>
>
> Since many countries do not have anything analogous to the US FDA, they
> can just use the drugs developed and approved by the US.  The staggering
> expense of FDA approval prevents new medications all over the world.
>

​*Europe tests drugs and are not limited to those accepted here.  I think
there are quite a few accepted there but not here.*​

>
>
> Thiel was being himself: he went to Mexico and Australia where they don’t
> worry too much about these kinds of things and tested the vaccines without
> all the costly control and oversight required by the FDA.
>
>
>
> The big deal is that they used test subjects in the Caribbean in St.
> Kitts, including (drum roll) American citizens.  (“GASP!” they gasped.)
> Thiel’s detractors are saying this is unethical (What is the unethical
> part?  (Going around the American FDA or experimenting on actual (gasp!)
> Americans?  (Would it be an ethical experiment had it disallowed US
> citizens?)))
>
>
>
> Thiel’s argument: the volunteers who took the vaccines already had herpes
> and did not have access to treatment.  So the worst that could happen is
> nothing.
>
>
​Q*uestion - a vaccine works by preventing the disease, so the people who
had herpes were improper test subjects, assuming that it is not a therapy
as well as a vaccine.  Is that right?*

>
>
> What happens if Thiel discovers this vaccine works, but declines to do FDA
> testing?  Then do we have a drug which can be used overseas but is illegal
> in the USA?
>

​*Yes - and this is common I hear. Plenty of people go to Mexico and Europe
for procedures and therapies not available here.  Here we are trapped by
Big Pharm.*
​

> Would it then be kinda like cocaine except that it actually prevents
> disease instead of getting the user stoned?  Imagine if other investors
> recognize that there are markets for drugs outside the USA and that the
> approval process here has gone from difficult to absurd.  Then they follow
> suit and create new classes of drugs and therapies using populations
> willing to take chance.
>
>

*I think this is the case in many parts of the world - think of China  I
find nothing wrong here except for my question above.*​

​  bill w​

>
>
> Ethics hipsters among us, do offer your insights please.
>
>
>
> spike
>
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