alt Hacker NewsLet's play spot the conflict of interest. Three of seven authors tied to a company selling biological aging tests. One consults for Merck, GSK, etc.
There seems some promise at times but I also struggle to see the recent slew of "GLP-1s cure X", where X is seemingly any ailment known to man, as much more than the next Big Pharma gold rush where the profits dwarf any eventual regulatory fines, and taxpayers and real patients are left with the costs.
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I am EXTREMELY skeptical of epigenetic clocks at the moment, and have been for a few years, but at the same time it's important for these clocks to be investigated and shown to be what they are.
Even though I personally expect them to be readouts of things that don't affect healthspan much, I don't have any more evidence than those trying to work out what they are. I've been wrong before, and also most tech development does not end up living to its promises, but without the investigation we'll never know.
> Big Pharma gold rush where the profits dwarf any eventual regulatory fines
With pharma malfeasance, the penalties are actually big enough, unlike most other fields. Unless you have something particular in mind?
Valid questions.
What would you propose instead? Who will do this research, with what funding, and why will they want to do it? And why would we trust that research more than this? Wouldn’t we scrutinize research carefully regardless of the source?
There are multiple alternative systems, as we see in other countries. But they all have tradeoffs and some really only make sense if some international entity is doing research somewhere else under a different set of rules.
I don't understand this fixation. If you literally had a cure for X for X in all ailments known to man, you would in fact have a Pharma gold rush.
it's low quality research. you don't need to point to perceived conflicts of interest. the drug is semaglutide, not a merck or gsk product. and semaglutide is coming of patent anyway
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No matter what drugmakers spend money on, you hear complaints:
- Marketing, to learn what / whom / how to sell: “They spend more on TV ads than R&D!”
- Basic R&D: “Look at all the conflicts of interest in this academic research!”
- Commercial R&D: “They’re just looking for ways to extend the patent lifetime of drugs that only exist because of government-funded basic R&D!”
- Back to the shareholders (mostly pensions and retirement accounts): “Billions of stock buybacks for Wall Street!”
What should the pharmaceutical companies with billions coming in from GLP-1’s be spending their money on?