Well well well. It’s all my pals in one place. Happy Tendie Tuesday to all who celebrate!
Every month, paid subscribers get a Tendie Tuesday essay from one of our own. Think of it as a Swipe Up+ Show and Tell Day: someone from the class gets to share something they are passionate about with all of us. It’s so much fun to see what lights people’s fires and this is part of the joy of having a place like this newsletter: I get to platform other people who are just as earnest as I am, but about something completely different.
Take this guest essay from Lil Swipe Grace Moser. Do I know what Grace does during the day? No, I do not. Do I know it’s probably more complicated than what I do? I can guarantee it is. But reading this essay, I’m inspired by her work and I want her to take us on a tour of her office (Lil Swipes Field Trip?) and lead us through a PowerPoint about how “the light from a dumpster fire can sometimes illuminate where God is working.” Are you kidding me with that line? I die.
Here’s some info about Grace:
“I am the Director of Regulatory Databases and Senior Analyst at Prevision Policy, a biopharma regulatory intelligence service in Washington, D.C. In addition to contemplating the minutiae of drug development, I love cooking and reading cozy mysteries. You can find me on Instagram at @gracemoser.”
Humans can be so endlessly gorgeous and fascinating and I’m just constantly in awe of the gifts you all share here and out in the world. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did, and please share your thoughts in the comments below!
I’m not a Big Pharma sympathizer, but its existence is the reason I’m able to pay my bills.
I’ve been writing about (almost) all things related to drug development for a little over six years now: clinical trials, FDA reviews, paying for new medicines under Medicare, and many things in between. I could talk excitedly about the intricacies of gene therapy manufacturing for hours, but that’s not why we’re here.
I’ve written about a lot of things that are purely bad and sad. There is no redeeming pharma’s central role in the ongoing addiction crisis. It’s morally reprehensible for the executives at some of these companies to bring in tens of millions of dollars a year while the patients they say are their “top priority” are forced to choose between their prescription medicines and groceries. I could go on, and I’m confident you could too. But the relationship between Big Pharma and patients in the U.S. is not all bad.
I wouldn’t be able to continue investing all my working hours, and paying attention to this industry if all I did was write about incurable rare diseases and chronic underfunding for life-saving government programs. The U.S. healthcare system is nothing short of a dumpster fire, but I’ve found that the light of some dumpster fires can help illuminate the places where God is working.
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