As part of my research for this project I’ve subscribed to Forbes Magazine as well as some other choice corporate oriented periodicals. So far I’ve found it both interesting and depressing, and a little difficult to digest at times. One example is an article in this months edition entitled, “The Next Fat Pill.” Subtitle reads, “Does Arena Pharmaceuticals have a new blockbuster obesity drug, or another health hazard like fen-phen?”

The article starts out talking about how with so many obese people in the U.S. appetite suppression drugs can be a money maker too big to ignore and how Arena Pharmaceuticals is attempting to tap into the market with a drug, currently in testing, called Lorcaserin. The drug has been delayed to assure that heart side-effects (Lorcaserin is a descendant of Redux) aren’t an issue and there won’t be a repeat of past health issues related to diet drugs (all the disclaimers during new drug commercials are there for a reason).

The strange thing about this and other articles in Forbes is that they are all very objective and seem to have been underwritten by each company’s PR people (I never read anything bad about the companies mentioned). I guess this makes sense but after reading magazine like YES, Adbusters, and Good the voice of the magazine is so different (again obviously) and even celebratory in a way that I haven’t encountered before.

Comments RSS
Leave a Comment
Trackback from your own site.