Discussion Questions
1. From our studies thus far in the course, the majority of antimicrobials have originated from natural product research. Why do you think Merck has decided to close its natural product research facilities and invest in synthetic chemistry? I think there is a couple reasons that Merck has decided to invest in synthetic chemistry. First, there is a significant investment required in order to find these chemicals. Also, the products they have came out of it have been great, but that was also over a large span of time. It seems like he wants to be able to make more products in less time, for example. Their last product found was 6 years before he decided to close the facilities. 2. The decision to close the natural product facility also comes at a time when the healthcare community has been observing an uptick in infectious disease related deaths in the United States. Does this seem counter intuitive or can you provide an idea why this has happened? I think this issue could go both ways. I think it could be counter intuitive because this could have been a high demand for products to treat these infectious diseases, which could've resulted in high profits for the company. However, it could also have been a smart move because if this company wasn't making products that applied to these infectious diseases, they could've lost money in developing their other drugs while the demand is high for others. Or, they were not capable of finding new products to treat these diseases. 3. Large Pharma and insurance providers have assigned a value to human life. Does this approach seem like a good one to use? With all morals set aside, I do believe this is a good approach. There is not enough resources. time or money to develop a single drug for one single person. Pharma companies are better off developing drugs that will be frequently used by thousands of people. ff. Given that we all have an assigned value. What does this mean in terms of the large increases observed in healthcare costs? The cost of many procedures and medications have increased greatly over the past decade give or take. All over the country, there are people that cannot afford surgeries, treatments or medications. These people that cannot afford these commodities will simple go without them Those that are rich can afford to spend thousands of dollars (or more) on procedures or treatments that could save their life, and the poor people will not get them. The healthcare system basically makes it seem like only those can afford the surgeries/treatments, deserve to live. 5. Is the healthcare system in the United States capitalistic or socialistic? Explain your answer. The healthcare system is capitalistic because our facilities are privately owned. However, this is being diminished by medicare, Medicaid, VA (these are all owned by the government), and insurance. These don't allow for private decisions in healthcare processing. 6. Do you think the "tone"