Boosting immune systems

Interesting, Jess - as the immune system is very much your speciality, it's good to hear the real scientific background, because it helps me to form a balanced picture of what helps and what doesn't!

Thinking of herbal remedies, I agree that some may be, and some are, effective. But, for example, St John's Wort, which is a very effective anti depressant, can have a very detrimental effect on some pharmaceutical drugs - Tamoxifen, for example, and statins, reducing their effectiveness. So, like everything else, the message is to approach with caution.

I found last night's documentary on BBC 1 - Who's Paying your Doctor? - very informative and it proved the point I made about pharmaceutical companies control over what drugs are prescribed for us. They must hate it when we find a natural remedy that works just as well

I didn't see that but will see if it's on iplayer.

The big pharmaceutical companies actively keep competitive drugs from reaching the market place if they believe it will harm their own sales

www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/health/policy/drug-makers-deals-with-generic-rivals-may-face-justices-review.html

www.ip-watch.org/2013/06/19/european-commission-fines-pharma-companies-for-payments-to-delay-generic-entry/ (google 'pay for delay') - it also keeps costs higher than they need to be.

The taxpayer pays for a large proportion of all medical research, when the research is complete, the government then hands the finished product over to the drug company to market - I don't know if they have to repay any of the taxation they received; I hope they do.

Patients are not always prescribed what is the best medication for their ailment and some are only available on private prescription - but patients are generally not given that information so they remain unaware that alternatives are available.

IMO - you are right to be sceptical.

Taxpayers fund basic scientific research, mostly via universities and national institutes.
These lines of research are published and can by used by anyone in the world.
They do not "hand over" anything to pharma companies. The pharma companies try to develop new drugs which is a very expensive process. Most of their possible drugs do not turn into usable drugs.
So not at all sure what money you think the taxpayer should get back.

Holly It seems a bit more complicated than you imply.
Yes the big pharma companies are paying money to stop other companies making cheaper generic copies, but only until the time when their patent would have run out anyway.
It appears that the companies making the cheaper generics collude to make the copies before the patent runs out, and are effectively blackmailing the large companies.
Patent law is there for a reason and that is to protect the profits of the companies who have spent billions researching and developing new drugs.
You may think it unbalanced and unfair, but as Jess has pointed out, without the R&D of the drug companies, there would be no new drugs, period.
Compared to the money spent by Big Pharma, the Government actually spends very little on research.

I was appalled to hear on the wireless this am that medical students no longer have pharmacy in their curricula.