[ExI] thiel goes south

Giulio Prisco giulio at gmail.com
Sat Sep 2 04:55:32 UTC 2017


I agree with Giovanni. Let's show nanny-state regulators the mid
finger and do financial business in Singapore and medical development
in third world countries.

Sorry if I sound too cynical, but I find it very easy to explain
over-regulation. It is big business for the bureaucrats who can enrich
themselves taking bribes. When a person does in it's called blackmail,
when the mob does it it's called protection racket, when the
government does it it's called regulation.


On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 8:23 PM, Giovanni Santostasi
<gsantostasi at gmail.com> wrote:
> Too much regulation.
> It is obvious.
> Same thing happens with cryptomarkets.
>
> What are supposed to be well intentioned laws end up to do exactly the
> opposite of what they laws were intended for. Unless the intention was
> really different from what the appearances tell.
>
> So let's do financial business in Singapore and medical development in third
> world countries. America will catch up eventually, in particular when
> business is hurt.
>
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 9:38 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Big news story today about one of Peter Thiel’s ventures.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.thedailybeast.com/authorities-launch-investigation-of-unethical-offshore-herpes-trial-backed-by-peter-thiel
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>> 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?  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.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ethics hipsters among us, do offer your insights please.
>>
>>
>>
>> spike
>>
>>
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>
>
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