Comes word that a small drug company has stopped trials of resveratrol, the "miracle" antioxidant concentrated in red wine, providing a few lame excuses, but one kernel of wisdom. Here's the quote from today's NYT: "Resveratrol has several features that make it unsuitable as a drug. These include the fact that it is hard to maintain a consistent level of resveratrol in the bloodstream and that it seems to have different effects at different doses."
Now, Ned asks his friends how many substances have "different effects at different doses." And, even though this company finds it difficult to maintain a "constant level' in the blood, the aspirin and ibuprofen makers don't seem to have that problem, nor do those who market timed-release Vitamin C.
No, the cynic in Ned prefers to accept the last excuse: "From a commercial point of view, resveratrol is a natural substance and not patentable." So they can't make enough money on it to pay their Sneering Plutocrat CEO tens of millions of dollars a year while gouging Medicare.
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