The Future of Pharmacology Flashcards
Learning outcomes
To describe the difference between ‘post-science’ and ‘anti-science’
ways of thinking.
To identify five major current challenges in pharmacology research:
time factor, current gaps in knowledge, animal model limits, genetic variability, and the replication crisis.
To describe five major positive future directions in pharmacology:
artificial intelligence (AI), illegal drugs being adapted for medical use, understanding the human genome, reviving older drugs, and right-to-try legislation.
To describe the benefits and risks of ‘Citizen Science’ in pharmacology – shared data, shared molecules, crowdfunding, adverse effect reporting, and volunteering for research.
Today’s lecture
How it works –
and it should
be replicable
What is the scientific method?
A quick reminder from Week 1
The ‘scientific method’ consists of
organised efforts
to come up with explanations of nature,
always modifying and correcting these
through systematic observations
Anti-science and post-science
‘Anti-science’ – suspicion of the very
concept and process for various
reasons, eg. science itself is part of
patriarchy, capitalism.
Anti-science and post-science
‘Post-science’ – science is simply one
discourse through which we can
interpret phenomena.
Science is one interpretative framework of many, all of which are equally valid (like post-modernism).
Why do people believe anecdotes but not data?
1980s explosion in complementary
therapies.
Second generation of ‘skeptics’ -
who aren’t skeptical at all.
Are we – consumers – driving these
changes because this is what we
WANT to hear/believe?
Internet echo chambers!
Anti-science and post-science
Both forms have similarities:
Suspicion that the science info chain has been completely compromised by financial interests, eg. drug companies, vested interests.
Seeks ‘pure’, ‘independent’ sources of information – but is rarely as critical of these sources.
The balance sheet
We’ve spent quite a lot of time in this unit showing you how using the scientific method has:
sped up and refined drug innovation,
produced much more effective treatments,
made many drugs much more low-cost and accessible, and
made it possible to share those drugs with more people than ever before in history.
A ‘loyal opposition’?
1960s counterculture and legitimate critiques of medical establishment.
Critics such as Ivan Illich, Thomas Szasz, and R D Laing helped to bring about many improvements in modern medicine and psychiatry.
A ‘loyal opposition’?
COVID-19 ‘cures’ belong to a rich tradition of folk medicine.
The origins of some modern medicine can be found in folk medicine – but it’s the beginning
point, not the end point.
The balance sheet
This has come with a downside as well:
a powerful biomedical voice that dominates treatment, eg. the overmedicalisation of normal human emotional states,
profit-driven production and priorities, eg. pricing some drugs out of access.
hard-to-track side-effects once a drug is released into the wider community,
over-use issues, eg. antibiotic resistance.
The balance sheet
Mistrust of Big Pharma makes it easier for people to reject the benefits of modern drug therapy and pursue what look like safer, gentler alternatives.
Belle Gibson
Belle Gibson – young Australian woman with online profile as
cancer sufferer.
Had launched The Whole Pantry mobile app in August 2013, at
age 21.
Reportedly downloaded 200,000 times within its first month.
Voted Apple’s Best Food and Drink App of 2013.
By early 2015, the Whole Pantry app and book had made over $1
million.
Gibson chronicled her battle with cancer on a blog of the same
name.
Managed her cancer treatment and recovery with whole foods.
Real-life implications of this
The rise of the ‘Wellness Entrepreneur’: Belle Gibson,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Pete Evans, Elle Macpherson
Coronavirus ‘cures’
Belle Gibson
Gibson modelled her own story and career on a nowdead ‘cancer influencer’ called Jess Ainscough -
but Gibson never had cancer.
2017: Found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct and fined $400,000 - still unpaid in 2023.
Some individuals claim to have ceased their cancer treatment and relapsed after following Gibson’s advice.
‘Bad Influencer: Belle Gibson and the Great Insta-Con’ (BBC, July 2021, 06:20) - https://youtu.be/WYBcTGpYKIM
Gwyneth Paltrow
2018: Paltrow’s merch site Goop was fined US$145,000 for
unsubstantiated marketing claims:
o Jade and rose quartz eggs for vaginal insertion – claimed
that they “balance hormones, regulate menstrual cycles,
prevent uterine prolapse, and increase bladder control.”
o Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend: claimed to prevent depression.
Goop paid fine and offered refunds to customers.
Elle Macpherson
Formerly in a relationship with Andrew Wakefield of MMR vaccine
infamy.
2010: Claimed that she consumed rhino horn products to maintain
her health and appearance (endangered species).
2015: Promoted ‘alkaline body’ as cure-all.
2024: Claims to have had breast cancer but refused conventional
treatments - now claims to have healed holistically.
“I realized I was going to need my own truth, my belief system to
support me through it. And that’s what I did. So, it was a wonderful
exercise in being true to myself, trusting myself and trusting the
nature of my body and the course of action that I had chosen.”
Pete Evans
Celebrity chef and paleo diet advocate.
May 2021: fined almost $80,000 over alleged unlawful advertising of wellness products.
Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) issued six infringement notices to Peter Evans Chef Pty Ltd:
‘BioCharger’ device - $15,000 light machine which Evans incorrectly claimed could cure the
“Wuhan coronavirus”.
hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers.
Advertising “contained statements that implied the products were endorsed by a health professional”.
The slowdown
of drug
development
Since 2017, only 12 antibiotics have been approved worldwide, 10 of
which belong to existing bacterial classes with established antibiotic
resistance.
o On average, antibiotic resistance is developed to new market entrants just 2-3 years post-market entry.
Average time-to-market for a new drug is 12 years.
Failure rates are as high as 90%.
Average R&D costs of US$1.1 billion twenty years ago have soared to US$4.4 billion.
More new drugs are not effective and have had to be removed from
the market.
And yet drug approval processes have sped up in the last thirty years.
https://ideas.newsrx.com/blog/why-drug-development-is-slowingdown-and-what-to-do-about-it
Natural cures
for COVID-19
COVID-19 is a nasty bug.
What’s wrong with people trying to cure it themselves with natural
products?
Nothing. It’s perfectly legal to do this.
You could also use a range of natural products and techniques for
symptom reduction and to make you feel better.
There is no cure for the common cold for a reason: it’s a virus that
rapidly mutates (like coronavirus).
2017 article: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/oct/06/whycant-we-cure-the-common-cold
And the common cold might protect you from COVID19! https://theconversation.com/the-common-cold-mightprotect-you-from-coronavirus-heres-how-158461
Problems start …
… when you manufacture ‘treatments’ or ‘cures’
and market them without proper evidence and regulation.
