<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">spike wrote</div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="m_8908263891818818609WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">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.</p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b><i>Europe tests drugs and are not limited to those accepted here. I think there are quite a few accepted there but not here.</i></b></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="m_8908263891818818609WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">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. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">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?))) <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Q<b><i>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?</i></b></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="m_8908263891818818609WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">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? </p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><b>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.</b></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="m_8908263891818818609WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">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.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u></p></div></div></blockquote><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"><br></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"><br></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"><b><i>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.</i></b></div> <div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline"> bill w</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="m_8908263891818818609WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Ethics hipsters among us, do offer your insights please.<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><u></u><u></u></font></span></p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">spike<u></u><u></u></p></font></span></div></div><br>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
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