1 min read
ByStephen Pollard, Stephen Pollard
I have a piece in today's Times on profit and drugs research. Here it is:
Which of these is most deplorable: an organisation selling guns used to kill civilians; an organisation selling cigarettes that cause cancer; or one researching and producing drugs to cure disease and suffering?
Silly question? In the film of John le Carre's The Constant Gardener, one of the heroes describes drug companies as worse than gun runners. Somehow, the idea has taken hold that companies that make a profit by researching and conquering human illness are not a wonderful boon to humanity, but our enemy.
I run a think-tank in Brussels. I am proud that some of our funding comes from pharma companies, which do so much good. Yet we are attacked for taking money from them, as if they are somehow beyond the moral pale.
The latest figure to have a pop at pharma companies is Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, the chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), who yesterday attacked them for ripping us off: