I'm tired of being stereotyped.

[TZ]

So I am a research associate for a big biotech that was recently bought out by a big Pharmaceutical company. I know the good bad and ugly of this field. However, I am tired, TIRED TIRED of me and my coworkers all being stereotyped as no good unethical money grubbing nazi experimenters!

That is so far from the truth its not even funny. Most of us groudlings that do the actual science (and we are doing ACTUAL SCIENCE, despite what some think) are devoted to doing the best work possible and really do want to help people. In fact, there is nothing more disturbing to us than knowing some drug or biologic we are working on has hurt people.

Those of us in the trenches have no control over things like drug advertising on TV, marketing of the meds, or prices. Yet we get constantly lumped in with those who have.

I've worked in a variety of different places. I've quit a job without something lined up because I was tired of the corps callous penny pinching profiteering ways.
I've worked at NIH, where I found both scientific genius and dedication (my boss once DELIBERATELY infected himself with malaria in order to advance work on the experimental malaria vaccine he was researching) and scientific fraud (I'm blacklisted at NIH because I blew the whistle on a couple of lying deceitful, incompetant researchers).
So before y'all start spewing the all big Pharma is teh evul meme, you might want to walk a mile or two in MY shoes.
:rant:

[aikoaiko]

1. Do good work, and continue to contribute to DU.

Don't let the idiots get you down.

[seabeyond]

2. all lawyers, doctors, cops, management...... dont take it so personally

look around your world. it is not just pharmaceutical. it is so many other professions where there are abuses that effect people, where the power is on one side, where we have to depend on another for our welfare.

the reality is, .... pharmaceutical is out to make a greater profit than what they felt in the past was comparable for what they give. greed. it is not just in pharmaceutical, it is all over.

i never looked at people like you as the "evil" in pharmaceutical. when bitching, i bitch about those that allow greed to over ride ethics. and there is a reality to this.

i am glad you posted, expressing yourself. hope you feel better. i enjoy your posts. and no, there are areas in YOUR profession i will continue to disagree with you on. you and yours are human. and will behave in a human way, without intent to hurt, though it can. with desire to do good, and maybe it doesn't. and being human will deny looking at to avoid realization. it is possible. doesn't make the person bad, just perfectly imperfect

[mac2]

5. All our institutions have been corrupted and rapped.

I can't think of one that hasn't including our religious ones.

[seabeyond]

8. ethics has become a lost word. kinda like "nice" a decade or two ago

i can remember when no one wanted to be told or called themselves nice. cause we had equated nice to weak. ethics has disappeared.

[Ghost in the Machine]

3. Can you give me some insight into the "science" behind the diagnosis

of ADHD & the making of Ritalin and other similar drugs to "treat" ADHD?

I'd like to hear your thoughts and opinions on this...

Thanks,

Ghost

[mac2]

4. I spent a lifetime of doing biomedical research

and I can tell you we the tax payers do get what we pay for regarding research and their dedicated workers. The problem is once that science leaves and is published we don't profit off it. Even foreign drug companies profit off it...big time.

Our cost of that drug/vaccine is not the research but the profit of a international corporation.

I recently read of a researcher at my past university obtaining a $30 million dollar research grant for Insulin studies. He wants to prove Insulin is good for the heart, etc. It is important to know who paid for it the NIH or a drug corporation who would benefit from the results of a manipulated study. I tried to find out but could not. They bragged about it in their university publication but did not say who gave them the money. I'd say that is an important piece of information.

Our public universities are being used by corporations and I resent that. Who profits? The international drug companies. They couldn't afford to run research on their own but use public funds and facilities to do it.

I'd like to say...all of society profits but as of late that is not true. Universities are even doing biological warfare research which I disapprove of period. The biological warfare virus, etc. could escape and cause a pandemic. Some researchers are careless.

[distantearlywarning]

6. Thank you.

I believe you. I'm sorry that you have to put up with ignorance even here on DU.

[bananas]

7. I'm tired of being monotyped!

[annabanana]

36. *!*

very good

[TZ]

37. uh oh

Don't kiss anyone...wouldn't want you to spread that monotype around.....

[madinmaryland]

9. I'm not sure if I've seen the stereotyping you refer to.

What I have seen (including myself) is the "corporatization" of these firms, as you say the marketing, advertising, etc. of the medicines. What bothers me is that Health Care System in general has become corporatized and is not available to nearly 50 million people.

I think most of us here applaud the work that the actual researchers are doing. Many of those drugs, including some that I use, are real life savers.

Edit: Recommended.

[The Traveler]

10. I have this hunch

that most of the researchers, testers, technicians and scientist types in the drug industry are in it as much for the "juice" as for the pay check. I worked in the physical sciences and the aerospace industry for a number of years ... immense job satisfaction.

Bet you guys would be just as happy working for a non-profit foundation as you would be for a huge corporation, so long as you could do your work, help people, and get paid.

You guys ARE the juice ... all the money men contribute is money.

[mac2]

11. Thank you for your ethics and morality.

I was a whistle blower too while working in a hospital clinical lab. I became unemployed and they didn't. But I knew I did the right thing. I could live with myself.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Good One!

Well said, TB.
The Professor

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. Tell Him What You Really Think Sue!

Don't hold back! That poster certainly deserves it.
The Professor

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TZ]

24. ......

:spray: :yourock:

[Dr. Strange]

26. Why did they delete my picture of Bush and Cheney jello wrestling?

Oh wait, I think that question just answered itself.

[Junkdrawer]

14. Leave Turtlensue Alone!

You're lucky she even industry lobbies for you...

[TZ]

19. again. Scientists have no union

You have no fucking clue how often they get *abused* by their employers but take it cause they care about the science.

[nashville_brook]

16. it would be great if pharma was 100% employee-owned, and you guys actually had control

of the evil quotient of your industry. i really believe this sort of democracy would clean it up.

but, in the meantime, there actually ARE bad things this industry is responsible for, and we need good people like you to identify with the struggle to improve things.

yeah, it sucks to be lumped into the big bad "pharma industry" stereotype. but it could be worse -- you could be a lawyer, a politician, a marketing professional or a Catholic priest.

i hope you continue to fight the good fight.

[Orsino]

17. I think that the animus toward Big Pharma...

...is pretty clearly aimed at their management and lobbyists. Obviously, not all researchers are to blame for the industry's evils.

[TZ]

21. I would like to think so

But given the nasty things I've been called here when I try to explain the actual science behind vaccines and drug clinical trials, I'm not so sure.

[rexcat]

34. I also work in Pharma...

I am involved in Phase I-IV oncology clinical trials and have been more than frustrated at some of the comments concerning pre-clinical and clinical trials. When ever I see a poster bashing clinical research I try to respond because most of the negative posters really don't know what they are talking about.

I will admit there are problems within the industry but those come from the top down and have more to do with greed more than anything else.

I feel that I am dedicated to doing the best job I can. As someone who is self-employed I pay for my own continuing education and keep up my certification. I am involved in professional organizations just like many others who work in Pharma. What irritates me is the people who assume if you work for the Pharma companies you are part of the problem. Then there are the one's who bash every Pharma product out there. For those all I can say is don't take any medications, even if they could be beneficial to the treatment of your illness because all approved drugs can cause problems.

Keep up the good work. The more you do in the lab the more work there is for me when it gets to trial!

[Burma Jones]

22. Pretty much anyone that has a good job is going to be vilified by someone here at DU

There are whiny losers lurking about........

Fuck Them, they can eat shit and die.

[lumberjack_jeff]

25. Even the most conscientious researcher is yoked to the profit mill

This is not meant to be personal, but the big corporate industry for which you work has only one goal: maximizing profit. It's not about the people who work in that system, it's the system. The big pharma company for which you work want you to develop potentially lifesaving medicines so that they can price it at a point where 50% of those whose lives could be saved by it can afford it. The rest will die, but that's business.

The Salk Polio vaccine was not patented intentionally. In 2008, this is inconceivable. If the polio vaccine were invented today, it'd be priced at $5000/dose, and trade sanctions and the punishment of the IMF would fall on the shoulders of any country which tried to distribute a cheaper generic. Salk, working for Pfizer, would be powerless to avoid this outcome today.

[NashVegas]

27. Creative & Scientific People Think They Aren't Yolked, Cause They're Not in a Factory

Doing manual labor. But they are in a different type of factory. Many don't realize how their work is being used to diminish us as individual humans.

For example, corps employ anthropologists to study and report on human behavior, so they can better manipulate our opinions and habits to buy their products. Commercial artists are right in there, helping.

What great masterpieces of visual art can you think of and name, from the last 30 years, that unify us, culturally? That aren't product logos?

Then you have the peeps working in bio-agribusiness and clone research, who are all too happy to tell any and every GM / GE critic they're full of shit and have no idea what they're talking about. Meanwhile, public domain knowledge that stood for centuries is being wiped out.

I've come to see IPR patents and trademarks as the modern day equivalent of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure "> enclosure, only the property that's being removed from common use is knowledge. Frightening stuff.

[PVnRT]

29. Ummmm...all patents are public knowledge

In fact, patents were put into the Constitution in order to get people to share their knowledge publically while still being able to make money off of it for a while. At a generic pharmaceutical company I worked, there was someone there full-time who just browsed drug patents that were near expiration to find new stuff for the company to make. I'm not seeing any kind of enclosure here at all.

I can understand the antrhopologists and the artists, but how are scientists trying to formulate new drugs somehow diminishing our worth as human beings?

[NashVegas]

35. Enclosure of Knowledge

In Iraq, we made it impossible for their farmers to grow their own crop. Our war destroyed their generations' of seed and then to add insult to injury, we passed Order 81 on them, forced them buy from Monsanto, and made it illegal to keep the seed and replant year after year.

Indian farmers have been committing suicide in droves because of the debt and ruin GM seed has left them with.

Here's a great article explaining what's happening in other ways:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1809581.stm

The development charity ActionAid is trying to patent a new ready salted chip in the hopes that it may not only own the rights to its invention but over any chip which has salt added to it. The charity even claims that it could charge chip shops for a licence to salt chips or risk infringement of the patent.

Sound ridiculous? That's the point - it's a stunt to show that patent rules currently allow companies to get exclusive rights over basic foods if they modify it in some way.

The move to patent chips is part of ActionAid's campaign against what it calls "bio-piracy" - multinationals taking out patents on crops that grow in poor countries.

Although salt has been added to chips for generations, ActionAid's chip is different in that it uses a new method to add the seasoning, the charity's spokeswoman says.

Biotechnology businesses have taken out almost 1,000 patents on staples such as rice and wheat by modifying the genes of a plant or cross breeding one variety with another.


Also in the UK, it's already law for farmers and gardeners to pay seed royalties every year on saved seeds:
http://www.bspb.co.uk/fssd/introduction.html

[IndianaJones]

28. if you don't have a PhD, it doesn't matter. nt.

[JerseygirlCT]

30. Good lesson for all of us about why broad brushes

are useless.

[mainegreen]

31. But you've got test tubes, build robots and cackle when you summon lightning...

you must be evil!

[hyphenate]

32. Nope

Can't stereotype you, because I know exactly what you're talking about. I worked for a biotech firm in Cambridge once upon a time, and knew both the scientists and those who supported them. I also worked for Johnson & Johnson for several of their company divisions, and my answer to all of this is that unless you are a shareholder or a top, top level person who gets to make the big divisions, you're not really able to manifest some of the more callous treatment of those in your employment. You are like the rest of us, trying to get by, and trying to make decisions pertinent to your situation.

There are times when you have absolutely no choice but to do exactly what is expected of you.

[w8liftinglady]

33. I appreciate what you do-and have seen first hand the benefits of your work

As a nurse,I have seen many advances in medicine over 25 years that wouldn't have been possible without your dedication.Thank you.

[NMMNG]

38. Hear, hear

Stereotypes suck. :hi:

[LeftishBrit]

39. Keep up the good work, and ignore the ignorant...

Easier said than done, I know.

I've experienced my own sterotypes: all research psychologists are nuts/ do cruel experiments on animals/ spend all their time analyzing people's body language!

[enki23]

40. I'm with ya.

Of course, I'm in a toxicology PhD program, so I suppose I have just enough knowledge to fall into the "Lying Industry Shill" side of the "Lying Industry Shill/Ignorant Believer in Western Medicine" continuum.