Episode 5-Big Pharma, Money and Conflicts of Interest

Imagine you're buying a used car.

You ask the salesperson, "Do you think this is the best car for my family?" The salesperson smiles, "Absolutely." Now, maybe they're telling the truth.

Maybe it really is the best car on the lot.

But before you make your decision, you remember something.

The salesperson gets paid if you buy the car.

That doesn't automatically mean they're lying.

It doesn't automatically mean the car is bad.

But it does mean there's a potential conflict of interest.

So what do most of us do? We read reviews.

We compare prices.

Maybe we ask a mechanic.

Maybe we talk to a friend who owns the same model.

In other words, we look for additional sources of information because we understand something important.

People can be honest and still have incentives.

Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

So let's move from a car dealership to medicine.

If a pharmaceutical company develops a vaccine and sells that vaccine, they make money.

That's not controversial.

It's how businesses work.

But once people realize that, a much bigger question naturally flow- follows.

If companies profit from vaccines, how do we know we can trust the science? That's the question we're going to wrestle with today.

I think this topic is often handled poorly, and it's super important.

Sometimes people respond by saying, "Trust the expert." Others respond, "Never trust big pharma." And neither answer is really satisfying.

One asks for blind trust, the other encourages blanket distrust.

Real life is usually much more complex because incentives matter.