Common factors seem to be: secrecy, and sticking to the old mindset of #ImaginaryProperty business models (patents, ndas, copyrights, et cetera).
I want to see the visions espoused by Theranos and uBiome come to fruition. There are *not* a lot of great examples of good biotech companies to emulate. AFAIK, there hasn't been a "don't be evil" moment in biotech.
Some biotech/healthcare company needs to come out and say "fck the old ways, they aren't working—Americans are not healthier, costs are up, and we still haven't solved cancer", and take a radical new approach of openness, collaboration, and forget about the abosolute horsesht practices of secrecy, #imaginaryproperty, and putting patients far down on the list of priorities.
“Haven't solved cancer”? Come on man!
The one I usually go with is "It actually costs $1T to develop a drug. $999B in basic research paid by US taxpayers and $1B in just enough frivolous novelty for the bigpharma company to get a patent racket going".
Just because it's a tactic used by shills doesn't mean whenever the point is made it's shilling / irrelevant.
Sometimes it's actually worthwhile to point out when an instance of behavior is actually part of a much larger, much bigger problem.
The argument is akin to saying "what about the Sackler family" in response to a criticism of Theranos, as though that somehow vindicates Theranos.
At best, you're suggesting the "everyone's doing it" defense applies in this case. If a cop won't let you out of a speeding ticket because others, too, were speeding, then why should we let the poop-testing startup off the hook because other crimes have also been committed in the same broken system?
> I don’t think the alleged crimes committed by them or Theranos are nearly as bad as the ones committed by big pharma and uspto and the rest of the healthcare industry
This pivot is why, I presume, there was an initial response that touched on whataboutism.
I have no other details, other than I don’t think the alleged crimes committed by them or Theranos are nearly as bad as the ones committed by big pharma and uspto and the rest of the healthcare industry. The whole thing is an f’ing sad joke. So I guess my $200 for the ubiome went down the tube, but what about the $1,800 that HMSA just tried to bill me for going to the doctor for a COVID test last February? How about the 500,000 lives lost to the opioid epidemic? Are any feds investigating USPTO, who was Purdue’s partner in crime? Nah, don’t think so. Let’s go after some small fish in the pond instead.
I blame the 30 something entrepreneurs who grew up in this toxic space a lot less than the 60 year old healthcare execs and government officials who created our f’d up system that we are all suffering from.
If you want to avoid the mistakes of both Theranos, uBiome, and big pharma here's the key strategy: avoid secrecy and #imaginaryProperty at all costs. It puts the patients last and is bad for the world.