This month's subject will deal with the pharmaceutical industry and the creative ways they try to package their latest concoctions. Over the past few years, pharmaceutical (and the new, yuppified "nutraceutical") companies have decided that just encapsulating their sure-fire cure-all for the syndrome-o-the-month in a plain little pill isn't good enough any more in these high-tech, glitzy, 21st Century times we live in. Delivering your wares in a boring, little white pill is about as exciting as a VH-1 Behind the Music special on Ravi Shankar. They feel that today's consumer is too "sophisticated" to ingest a plain old tablet or capsule. But guess what? My digestive system doesn't know that! Just in the past year, I've seen pills named all of the following:
Now, I'm pretty sure that if these companies would just put as much R&D efforts into the actual contents of these "advanced delivery systems" as they do the containers, there'd be no more AIDS, cancer, or cough due to cold. We could wipe out disease and pestilence faster than George Steinbrenner can buy another World Series title. And, of course, all that money spent on developing the latest and greatest softgelcaptabsule has to be recouped somewhere, so guess who pays for that? Yep, WE do. Now let's get out there and win one for the gypper...