Scott Adams and a Cancer Teaching Moment
If critics of drug makers had their way, the ‘Dilbert’ creator wouldn’t have a chance against his prostate cancer.
By
The Editorial Board, WSJ
Nov. 7, 2025 5:53 pm ET
SCOTT ADAMS, CREATOR OF THE COMIC STRIP DILBERT, IN 2006.
Politicians love to assail drug makers, but what would Americans do without lifesaving medicines? The predicament recently confronted “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams, whose cancer plight illustrates the value of pharmaceutical innovation.
Mr. Adams, 68, disclosed this spring that he has metastatic prostate cancer. Advanced prostate cancer diagnoses among older men have spiked since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force—an independent panel of putative experts—advised in 2012 against PSA testing, supposedly owing to concerns about it leading to “over-diagnoses” and “over-treatment.” That’s healthcare rationing code for too much spending.
The task force modified its recommendation in 2018 to suggest physicians discuss risks and benefits of screenings with patients ages 55 to 69 while recommending against screenings for those 70 and older. Still, the American Cancer Society reported this autumn that late-stage disease has increased 6% annually over the last decade among men ages 55 to 69.
The good news is that newer treatments are improving outcomes for patients and carry fewer harmful side effects. Take Novartis’s Pluvicto, which delivers radiation directly to cancer cells. In a clinical trial, it more than doubled progression-free survival for patients with metastatic prostate cancer that stops responding to hormone therapies.
Mr. Adams posted on social media this weekend that he has had a hard time scheduling an appointment with his provider, Kaiser Permanente, to receive a Pluvicto infusion. President Trump saw the post and directed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to help Mr. Adams. There’s no small irony here in that RFK Jr. is a leading anti-pharma antagonist.
Liberals are spinning the cartoonist’s plight as a parable of America’s horrific private medical system. But Mr. Adams had been approved by Kaiser Permanente to receive the drug. His access problem appears to have been bureaucratic.
Liberals also overlook that the drug isn’t available in many countries with government-run systems because they restrict medicines based on cost. The Food and Drug Administration approved Pluvicto in spring 2022, but France’s national health system didn’t fully cover it until this spring. The U.K.’s National Health Service still doesn’t because it claims the benefits are too uncertain.
Vinay Prasad, now Mr. Trump’s head of the Food and Drug Administration biologics shop, nit-picked the drug’s trial in a 2021 YouTube video. “We’re going to spend horrific amounts of money on your drug,” he said, questioning whether it is any better as a treatment than chemotherapy. Mr. Adams might be grateful that the drug was approved before Dr. Prasad arrived at the agency this year.
Mr. Trump wants to force drug makers to reduce their prices, but profits fund investment in novel and potentially life-saving medicines like Pluvicto. Mr. Adams has a fighting chance because of profits.
More attention must be given to underlying cause. Most “treatments” in the US are that…..treatments, NOT cures. There’s no profit in cures and that pocketbook focused mindset needs to be demolished. Our food is unhealthy and our environment toxic due to pocketbook based focus. Do we need to make profits on things…. Of course…… but causation elimination needs to be the primary focus. There are other means of profiting and it certainly does not need to be at the record levels BigPharma and BigAg are raking in.
Your are correct. The profit over people should end. And these drugs they are pushing through, how long was the trials and are we getting the truth? Most trials can take 5-10 years, but COVID was pushed through in record time. They knew what they were doing and it had nothing to do with saving lives.
Case in point, the COVID injection was not designed to cure or treat, but was pushed to be given to everyone without exposing all the ingredients. If the drug was so good, why all the bonuses? Why would they give hospitals enormous amounts if a patient died? Why force remdisvier onto people knowing the high death rate of over 60%, after sitting on the shelf due to the dangers.
And they dare question why they have lost the trust of the people.
Over 20 million worldwide no over 2 billion died from the injection and in many cases autopsies were withheld, why?
The number of injections being pushed for our children cannot end well. Too many toxins for little bodies.
Was it pushed through in record time? I seem to remember some posts about patents on Covid or Covid “vax” dating back to around 2016 or before…..
If the med beds are ligit then get them going ASAP!!!!!
Let’s go down the rabbit hole a bit regarding profits………
So we charge Americans MUCH higher prices than other markets…..why? Because insurance will pay it, driving those costs??? Why should WE fund all the research?
“Kickbacks” are paid to the NIH and CDC, to the doctors who prescribe the “appropriate” number of medications.
What If we took those kickbacks earnings, the payments to the doctors, removed all ability for Pharma to spend money advertising (brought to you by Pfizer), removed their ability to lobby Congress or support congressional representatives……..if you took ALL that money, how much “profit” do they REALLY need to do research????????
It’s “WeThePeople” not “we the corporation”. They should NOT be advertising and should have ZERO to say about politics.
Thank you for your attention to this matter!