The People's Apothecary
Has the time come for a pharmaceutical company that
embodies many of the values of holistic healthcare?
At its best, Big Pharma has developed highly innovative medication that have greatly reduced human suffering. On the other hand, certain companies a rightly deried for their excessive profit margins, political influence, and rush to develop new drugs for questionable uses.
Can we do better? What would a drug company look like that embraced holistic
values?
I propose the incorporation of a “people’s apothecary”. The people’s apothecary would be a local business. It would manufacture over-the-counter pharmaceuticals ideally derived from natural materials—such as aspirin—that whenever possible come from sustainable, organic, local or fair-traded sources. Its manufacturing and accounting would be highly transparent. It would be a carbon-neutral business. It would collaborate with local herbalists to produce drug-herbal hybrids with the goal of enhancing effectiveness and reducing side-effects. Its R & D would be open-sourced and involve collaboration with pharmacists, herbalists, and others who hold similar values. Its packaging would feature information on non-pharmacological approaches to self-care so as to minimize drug use and abuse. Its profit model would be centered around training social entrepreneurs everywhere on how to establish their own people’s apothecaries.
What do you think? Email me your comments, outrages, funding.
2009 Karlo Berger. Some rights reserved. Website Design by Solid Uncoated.
Thanks to Hannah Burr, Kristin Granli, and Jim Kelly.