Interesting, the contrasts between Irish whistleblowers and American whistleblowers. Although Irish whistleblowers may get moral satisfaction from their actions, they don’t usually get rich.

In the last ten years, American whistleblowers in the private sector have not only got moral satisfaction, but stacks of cash from their actions. Leo Varadkar and Helen McEntee, please note.

The most up to date example of incentivized US whistleblowing relates to Simufilam, a drug in development by a company named Cassava, in Austen, Texas.

This medication was felt to be so promising as a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s that, during the summer, rumours boosted the share value of Cassava by – wait for it – one thousand five hundred percent.

In July, 2021, this company, despite the fact that it has no track record of ever developing a major successful drug up to this point, was worth five billion dollars.

The Cassava top guy, Remi Barbier pointed out that Simufilam was the first drug to restore cognition. In other words, it could bring back the patient’s thinking and memory processes, which for an Alzheimer’s sufferer is the Holy Grail.

Given the prevalence of Alzheimer’s, worldwide, given the aging population in many countries, including our own, and given the raw fear with which older people and their families look at the possibility of their contracting it, describing the drug developer as the new Google or Amazon, as happened in the last year, didn’t seem that excessive.

Until a...

Read Full Story: https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-40812468.html