Hi Ann Bee,
Yes, Yes, I could not agree more... I just read "The Truth About The Drug Companies (And How They Deceive Us And What To Do About It)" By Marcia Angell (2004/2005), former Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine. I am now reading "Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients" by Ben Goldacre (2012/2013), University of Oxford.
... I am still a "newbie" (computer-geek term for "beginner") in all this, but already it seems like "...here we go again!" with Hepatitis C.
Will it ever end?
Maybe it is ultra-naive of me to say this, but the computing world used to be dominated by companies like IBM and Microsoft, and then along came completely new models of doing business Linux, Google. etc. (sure, they still make big bucks, but they add value!)
... My point being that its impossible to change the old dinosaurs (i.e. you can't teach an "old dog new tricks"), but IT IS POSSIBLE TO INTRODUCE NEW SOLUTIONS which quickly gain acceptance because they actually work for people...
So even if we love to knock the dinosaurs, we should also be thinking about how to achieve a better solution beyond Big Pharma?
In the development of computing, the internet did not wait for dinosaurs. Let's now use the internet for human health!
Diagnosed Jan 2015: GT3, A0+F0/F1. Fatigue + Brain-Fog.
Started Sof+Dac from fixHepC 10-Nov-2015. NO sides.
Pre-Tx: AST 82, ALT 133, Viral Load 1 900 000.
Week4: AST 47, ALT 58. VL < 15 (unquantifiable).
Week12 (EOT): AST 30, ALT 26, VL UND
Week16 (EOT+4): AST 32, ALT 28, GGT 24, VL UND
Week28 (EOT+16): AST 26, ALT 22, GGT 24, VL UND
Ever grateful to Dr James.
Relapsed somewhere after all that... Bummer!
Jan 2018: VL 63 000 (still GT3).