[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 168, Issue 15

[Re Rose]

Apologies, my browser is not letting me edit the name of this email  :(

To answer the question below about basic research, please keep in mind not
all the research is - or should - be done by big pharma. Academics (should)
get funding to do basic research, so a problem arises is when academics
team up with pharma to push a profit agenda forward.

As a libertarian myself, I have no problem with making money, and believe
that people doing work should be paid for it. But basic discovery is the
work of science, while making a discovery into something marketable is the
job of industry. Crossing those lines leads to market distortion, and bad
incentives.

Personally, I have done such basic pharmaceutical research as an academic,
to develop a molecule called epibatidine as a non-narcotic pain reliever.
This promising molecule is still being studied by others and will present a
novel class of very effective, no-narcotic pain relievers once the toxicity
and bio-availability issues are solved. This research started in the lab as
a basic biochemistry sort of question (why does this frog-secreted molecule
block pain in mammals??) and once that was learned (it is an agonist of
nicotinic receptors, which blocks pain perception), pharma joined the
academics to develop this potential drug.

So, IMHO, the answer to finding novel and effective pharmaceuticals is to
keep academics academic, not profit-motivated, and continue to fund basic
and undirected research.

--Regina




Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2017 15:23:22 -0400

> From: Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com>

> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>

> Subject: Re: [ExI] addiction solution?

>

<SNIP!>
..........

>
You sort of answered it above: money. Drug testing and marketing are

> expensive. Supplements aren't novel so they aren't patentable, therefore,

> drug companies have no incentive to develop them as products.

>
>This needs to change.  How can we get people who have no monetary interest

> > in the outcomes of supplement studies to do quality scientific work to
find

> > out what works and what doesn't?

>

They have to get funding somewhere. I'm a libertarian and fundamentally

> distrust the government, but I'd gladly support cutting the DoD budget by

> 2% and reallocating half of that to supplement research.

>
-Dave
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