Drugs and Pharmacology, Eighteenth Edition

Welcome to the eighteenth edition of Drugs and Pharmacology. Today, we discuss why pharmaceutical companies really call themselves biotechs, do people with high cholesterol really live longer, and a video blog on DMT — a psychedelic drug.

Remember, we review the latest blogs related to drugs — medicinal, recreational, interactional, personal, professional, or any other aspect. If you were left out in this round, just leave a comment with your blog entry. You can check out the archives for every edition of this carnival.

For future editions, please remember to submit your blog entries using the online submission form. We will do our best to review and include your entry! Enjoy your readings…

Everyday Finance writes Why do Pharmas Call Themselves Biotechs? You May be Surprised:

Biotech is cool and Pharma’s evil. Think of it as Google vs. Microsoft. This is what your politicians will have you believe and you can even find hippie college students that are destined to work in the cool biotech hubs in California and Boston while claiming they wouldn’t be caught dead at a “Big Pharma”. Even Cramer was always touting that under Obama, Biotechs would be winners and Pharmas would be losers.

The (Skeptic’s) Health Journal Club writes Do People with High Cholesterol Live Longer?:

For instance in considering the Framingham data, he points out that 1) the study contradicted the results of numerous previous studies 2) the correlation between high cholesterol and coronary artery disease was itself weak (a correlation coefficient of 0.36) and 3) only some 14% of those who died in the couse of the study were autopsied – and there was no criteria given in the study for how they chose those 14%. This non-random selection further weakens the conclusions of the study by introducing a serious possibility for bias in how those 14% were picked.

The Emotion Machine writes DMT (Dimethyltryptamine): The Psychedelic “Spirit Molecule”:

Many cultures, indigenous and modern, ingest DMT as a psychedelic in extracted or synthesized forms. Pure DMT at room temperature is a clear or white to yellowish-red crystalline solid. A laboratory synthesis of DMT was first reported in 1931, and it was later found in many plants.