Trials By Drug Companies

Someone I love keeps saying things like, “You mean those trials run by the drug companies for the drug companies.” I don’t know what to say to that other than who else should run it? Do you want a car manufacturer testing vaccines instead? Who runs all the car crash tests? Should it be the car companies or the vaccine companies? Conflicts of interest are of course a problem with any industry. That is why it is nice to have solid government regulation and inspectors from agencies like the EPA, FDA, NHTSA, and VRTC. Of course that still doesn’t prevent all problems like industry CEOs and experts later working for regulators and vice versa. That can cause a conflict of interest. But again I say what is the better solution? Putting people with no industry experience in a position to greatly influence that particular industry? So instead of disregarding a studies claim you disagree with due to what industry they worked for you should evaluate the data and the results.