Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 24, 2023

Visited a friend in Texas few years back. She said to I should make sure to bring my allergy medicine. I told her I don’t take allergy. I rather have runny eyes and a little wheezing than the side effects.

Warning… this medicine will make you break out in uncontrollable fits of laughter!

Business ethics. Right up there with political integrity.

Warning: Do not taunt Sneeze-B-Gone.

As in: “Yeah — Right!”

What’s insane (well ONE thing) is that in the US we are inundated with ads for prescription medicines. And the law which allows that also requires them to tell about possible side effects. The folks reading the ad have proven able to speak really fast!

Spouse and I laugh about it sometimes. Here’s a new drug for (something you never heard of) that will make the lives of sufferers from that somewhat better. But you’d better be prepared for high blood pressure, upset stomach, hives, flat feet and flatus. Not to mention humongous payments. But don’t worry if you cannot afford your medication, they’ll help you buy enough so you cannot back out… before they turn off the assistance.

The pharmaceutical companies list the potential side effects and maintain a liaison who records any “adverse reaction reporting”, even things not obviously connected. I’ve worked in pharma mfg and had to sign in as part of the training modules.

No one wants to foster a lawsuit. Bad for the company, bad for people (except lawyers and I don’t want to feed into jokes about shysters)

Pharmaceuticals have no incentive to cure anything. They want people to stay addicted and rake in the $$$

The major side effect is weight loss (cost of the medicine), but the pharmaceutical offset the effect with the weight gain of the politicians they bribed to shortcut the approval process

Nice! Stephan goes there! Well done, sir.

I find it interesting how every ad I have ever seen, either in print, on line or on TV always has a long disclaimer (required by law) to warn you of all the side effects of each and every drug or injection…except for the mRNA shots for C0v!d.

Big Pharma will post happy fuzzy Hallmark Romance-y ads with active smiling seniors and golden retrievers, then mumble 100 side-effect disclaimers including death and causing the very condition the drug is supposed to cure, all done at 1,000 words per minute so no one could ever keep track, even if they tried to pay attention. Yet somehow that gets them off the hook.

Since when did it be right for patients to “ask their doctor if (fill-in-the-drug) is for them”?!

Yeah them vaccines was 100% safe. Yessiree!

The side effects are worse than the malady some times!

Got that right. Big Pharma is totally corrupt in lockstep with the FDA.

Sadly, it is actually true. It is all about $$$.

Laughing all the way to the cemetery

Disclaimer: This comic may not apply to the drug you are concerned with. Do not use this comic as medical or legal advise. (Please consult with a medical specialist that you trust before deciding whether you think this is funny.) [All comic “advise” should only be used with the intent that it is “prescribed”.]

Nice to see Goat and Rat agree on something.

When do pharma companies say no side effects? They list more of them than the benefits of the drugs.

While most side effects can be managed, some can be very serious and may even cause death.

Seems like psychosis and death are common side effects of life. Enjoy your drugs.

I love it, this one’s good!

Yeah, right! There’s no money in telling the truth!

Pharma ads used to be 10 seconds long. Then the FDA said they have to warn people about he side effects. Now they’re a minute long and the side effects are read by John Moschitta Jr

You can trust me. I’m from Big Pharma.

I heard a guy on the radio last week saying that the US had like 5% of the world’s population and used 75% of the drugs and was the least healthiest of modernized countries

Scientific American article: ..“But the FDA’s belief that more risk information leads to greater concern about risk is misplaced. Across six experiments, comprising more than 3,000 U.S. participants, we reliably found that when drug commercials included all side effects (both major and minor), in line with the FDA’s regulations, consumers judged the overall severity of the side effects to be lower than when they were exposed to only major ones. This lowered assessment of severity led consumers to prefer the drug more—and made them willing to pay more for it.”

Wait for the commercial to find for sure. Many of the commercials out now prove that you’re better off with your existing condition than the possible side effects of taking the medication for that condition.

Laughter: the best medicine

All too often the new drugs don’t work any better than the old ones, they just cost a lot more. Drug companies are not required to prove the new drug is better than the old ones, just that they are better than nothing.

Dr “Ouchie” Fauchie tells us all to rush right out and get our Covid booster booster booster booster right now, bow howdy.

I miss the days when only OTC placebos could be advertised on TV. Remember the dancing Contac pills?

It only took 50 years to get a diagnosis; pansinusitis. All they did was translate the symptoms to Latin. Finally a referral to an E.N.T. in a few weeks. Save me, Treebeard!

Big pharma is comparable to the government and politicians in terms of ethics and responsibility.

Remember, do not take Comicsin (pearlsbeforeswinetol HCl) if you are allergic to Comicsin. Tell your doctor or pharmacist that the makers of Comicsin have enough money to make a TV commercial, so it MUST be better than that stuff you’re taking now! Oh, and if you can’t afford Comicsin, go complain to somebody with student loan debt. If you also have student loan debt, we’ll see what we can do to give you the non-overinflated-for-rich-insurance-companies price.

Pharmaceutical companies could do a lot of good in this workd. Sadly they care far more about profits and big CEO salaries than sick people. Good ’ol unregulated Capitalism at work.

i always like the ad for something and 1 of the side effects is what your taking meds for to stop

The PDR used to show the probability of each side effect listed in the test population … gone are the days, my friend.

This is why I read the comics. For a good laugh.

At last, Rat and Goat finally agree on something.

If you want to know how to get away with murder, just ask Perdue. They unleashed an addiction epidemic that killed thousands of people, and destroyed countless families. They got no jail time.

I saw a sign on an ER wall that said that if a drug didn’t have effects, they wouldn’t do anything for you. Interesting spin. Sure some effects are good for us, others, not so much.

I’m old enough to remember when the end of those pharma ads said, “See this month’s issue of [magazine] for more information.” These days it’s assumed everyone can read the info online, if they’re into that kind of thing. For a sleep aid, you won’t need to take the medicine.

My Dad was a long-time pharmacist. Every so often, he’d add an “edit” that maybe a doc wouldn’t tell someone. E.g. “Make sure to take this on a full stomach.” or “Take his when you’re sitting down.”

thanks stephan, do religion next # timely

Nice to see Rat behaving in a normal way—again.

All prescription pharmaceutical products have a multi page document that comes with the original packaging and describes possible side effects in detail along with observed percentages of people taking the product who experience the side effect. Yeah, it’s in small print but otherwise it would be a thick book. And when the product is repackaged by the pharmacist it isn’t included. All the detail is also available on-line.

It’s a LIE that the companies hide the side effects. But then, this is a comic strip.

And yet they are required to tell you of side effects. Its odd though to see Goat being cynical with Rat. I think he’s been around Rat too long.

Very sad but very true. The really sad thing is that they have no real competition so there will be no change……

Used to work at a hospital and would sit down on break and peruse the Physicians Desk Reference book of drugs…very often the description of side effects was longer than the description of the drug itself!

keep seeing one on tv commercial with possible side effect of ‘death’…“ask your doctor for”….

Did they ever make a comment about twitter changing to X that would be great if they did

who here likes playboi carti/juiceWRLD

When I first started taking Prilosec for my Girds it was so new that most people had never heard about it. At the time there were no known side effects for Prilosec and it was one of the first drugs affective against girds. About ten years later it had been on the market long enough for people to realize that the drug affected bone density over time, but it seemed like a small problem compared to not being able to eat because of the acid reflux.

I’ve been seeing commercials for a drug that is supposed to cure hot flashes. One of its side effects is hot flashes.

Weird to see both Rat and Goat laughing together, or even laughing

“Side effects may include: itchy, watering eyes, sneezing, clogged sinuses. In fact you may never know if it’s working. But since we printed this on the box, you cannot have a refund.”

Yup! Laughter is the best medicine, they say. And, besides, it’s free….

Safe & effective.

They’re right there, hidden in the fine print of the lie.

NEWSDAY censored this strip

I checked a bottle of motion sickness tablets. One of the side effects is nausea. Thanks a heap.