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Clinically Meaningful but Out of Reach 💊

Clinically Meaningful but Out of Reach 💊

A Reading List on Pharma, Money, and How our Meds Get Made 💉🤑

October 03, 2024

Hi 👋

If you’re out of the loop, this is a new series for The Lazy Reader: Themed reading lists.

On Thursdays, we’ll send out five or so reading recommendations that fall under a specific category. Maybe it’s about the pharma industry and how our medicines get made, or maybe it’s about death and what it tells us about living.

The goal is to make this a weekly thing, but that might not be possible straight away. (Running a newsletter on top of a freelance business is stretching me to my absolute limit). We’ll start sending every other week and then hopefully move to a weekly rhythm in a few months’ time.

Of course, this won’t affect our weekly Longread Lists on Mondays.

Happy reading!

Clinically Meaningful… but Out of Reach

In January of this year, I was diagnosed with GAD—generalized anxiety disorder. It came after months of having sleep problems, where I’d go for days with not a wink of sleep. Sometimes, I’d have to suppress panic attacks (mostly unsuccessfully) just to get some rest at night.

Needless to say, it was an awful time.

So I welcomed the diagnosis with relief. Finally, I thought to myself, maybe I’d fall back into a regular sleep schedule.

But I quickly realized that that comfort came at a steep price—literally: my medication regimen isn’t cheap. All of a sudden, I was shelling out some 10% of my monthly income just to temper the chemical imbalance in my brain. I had to draw up a new budget for myself and scramble for additional work just so I could stay on top of my bills and other expenses.

I’m lucky too have had a bit of leeway, money-wise. Others aren’t as fortunate.