Philosophers, Profit and Drug Companies, Rafi Anteby

                                       Philosophers:

A Philosopher, Dominicus van Tol (c.1635-1676)

Photo Credit: Grundy Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-SA]

In France, “Slimani and Houellebecq are both provocateurs and intellectuals. They are serious thinkers who needle away at the moral values that underpin society with uncomfortable but important questions.

In Britain, we have exiled our intellectuals from public life. Question Time panels are padded out with professional comedians and TV stars who offer cheap laughs but have nothing to say about our country as it faces the most serious crisis in its recent history. When was the last time you saw a philosopher on TV? England has a long and shameful history of anti-intellectualism.”

(James Marriott, The Times, 2019)

Why is there always a preponderance of politicians on Question Time? Surely there are articulate members of the public who are able to air their views?



Drug Companies

The Cheat, Edgard Farasyn (1858-1938) Photo Credit: Walker Art Gallery [CC BY-NC]

Two drug companies have been accused of breaking the law by carving up the market to keep prices for an antibiotic artificially high.

The competition watchdog has provisionally ruled that Advanz Pharma and Morningside reached a deal with the wholesaler Alliance Healthcare so that they would not compete in the market for nitrofurantoin capsules between 2014 and 2017. The medicine, for urinary tract infections, underwent a five-fold price increase in this time.

…During this period the price to the NHS of the 50mg version of the medicine rose from £3.66 in early 2014 to £15.42 at the end of 2016, and a packet of 100mg capsules went from £6.91 to £10.42.

…It is the latest case conducted by the regulator where it has accused drug companies of breaking competition law by striking deals or abusing a dominant market position to sustain or raise prices.

…The government passed legislation in 2017 that enables it to step in and impose lower prices for medicines if it believes it is being overcharged but ministers have not yet used these powers.

…The companies said they did not believe they had broken competition law and would examine the CMA’s [The Competition and Markets Authority] findings. They will have an opportunity to respond but could face fines of 10 per cent of their global revenue.

(The Times, 2019)

For how many years have we been reading stories like this? If legislation has been passed that enables ministers to step in and impose lower prices for medicines if it believes we are being overcharged, why haven’t they acted? Make the chief executives of the drug companies personally responsible and take them to court.

People

Beata Beatrix, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Photo Credit:Tate [CC BY-NC-ND]

Rafi Anteby is a martial arts expert who has worked with celebrities suffering from anxiety and insists that the products he has on offer are answering a genuine need.

“Serenity breaks” range from spa holidays at Bali’s Royal Purnama hotel – where stressed out celebrities can be covered in healing black sand before being cleansed with holy water – and meditation trips to Costa Rica’s Rythmia Resort, where guests work with a shaman, herbalists and doctors to reduce stress and “reach states of optimum tranquillity.”

Also provided are safaris to Uganda where A-listers’ contorted minds can be soothed by “gorilla therapy.”

“You literally submit yourself to the gorillas. You don’t move and they come over and touch you and it’s a really grounding thing to have the most powerful creature in the universe realising you are not a threat and being gentle with you.”

If you don’t have time for that there’s always cannabidiol (CBD) which claims to calm and reset in 20 to 40 minutes – depending on how you administer it.

(The Sunday Telegraph, 2019)

Does the martial arts expert have any medical qualifications or expertise?