My Life on this planet.

Who are often the biggest enemies of progress for women apart from the obvious men who try to secure their own positions at the top? Indeed, women.  First of all, I understand why certain people are anti-abortion as they cannot understand that a woman doesn't want her baby, someone who should be someone to look forward to according them. Still, certain of these anti-abortion people are not interested in babies, for them this is a religious political issue to gain votes. It is similar with certain powerful politicians who claim people should not divorce but they have extramarital relations their partner doesn't know about; for the public eye they seem to be faithful but in practice they are not although they are not divorced. The below article discusses why abortion is sometimes important, just as contraceptives are important to pervent unwanted pregnancies, and thus abortions. It also describes how women can be used by men for their century old conservative agenda, even when wo...

Medicines and vaccines, always an assessment between benefits and risks as explained in the Guardian ; I've written before in great length about the development, approval and safety follow-up of any possible risks (see Pharmaceutical companies need to earn money to improve their products , Codeine as an example how product information of medicines continue to change , Generic drugs - and the cost to develop the real stuff and an older post that explains the origins of the important regulation Thalidomide - And the apology that angered its victims .  As the pandemic resulted in large numbers of people either death or severely ill for months while other people don't even show symptoms when they test positive for SARS-CoV-2, we were lucky that the scientific knowledge but also pharmaceutical companies are much advanced. The result: a speedy development of a number of vaccines. Of course, many people are unsure about these vaccines and have questions, certainly when you know that ...

This is an older text (from around 2013-2014) that I didn't publish earlier, among other reasons because my internet was down and afterwards the moment was gone, hence some links to older articles. But now it seems to be another moment to publish the updated article as part of my miniseries about the pharmaceutical sector to show it is much more than "only for the money" although I acknowledge there are excesses. As a reminder:  - The first article was about the obligations pharmaceutical companies have to continue to monitor the safety of their products after commercialisation and if needed companies must update the product information, a cost for the companies.  - The second article described how the product information of codeine-containing products had major updates long after it was first used because new data became available as a result of its use in clinical practice and because it can interfere with  new drugs.  -  This third article describes the pr...

This article is a follow-up of my previous article to illustrate how the product information of medication is never final but pharmaceutical companies continue to update the information to be sure healthcare professionals and patients can trust that the information is up-to-date and medications are safe to use.  When companies want to make changes or government medicine agencies tell them to do so, companies must submit dossiers to these agencies and pay for the assessment of the suggested changes and after their approval, the updated product information will be published on the website of medicine agencies but also printed in the leaflet that is enclosed in the packaging of the medication. And yes, civil servants working at those agencies declare each year that they have no conflicts of interest and thus are independent from the companies to work in the interest of society.   Codeine can be taken as example of what happens after medications receive their authorisation...

The anti-science and anti-companies or, more general anti-establishment movements continue to grow and not only in the USA when you see on social media the growing numbers of conspiracy theories that question e.g. pharmaceutical companies but even doctors and nurses . Yes, it is correct that some (people working in) pharmaceutical companies think more about profits than about helping people, or at least that impression we have. But the majority in those companies are people who want to help people to reach an old age in good health.  Pharmaceutical companies as friends People claim that pharmaceutical companies should be more open and even question whether patents should exist while patents earn companies money that they invested in past research but also will invest in future research while they have to pay their legal obligations and their employees and investors ( this article  projects what pharmaceutical companies may earn from the Covid-19 vaccines while I am not naive...