Genie Corporation

A weighty concern

Once space settlement began in earnest, it became apparent that there were a whole host of complications that went along with settling new worlds. One such complication was gravity sickness, a condition that affected those settlers on planets which had a greater than 0.5g difference in gravity. It became quite a major concern especially when many of the planets viable for settlement had significantly different gravity to that of Earth.

A hasty solution

There became a bit of a race amongst pharmaceutical and science companies to find ways to combat this sickness. The Genie corporation was one of the forerunners in research development, and produced the first working drug. Everything seemed to be fine at first, the drug had the desired effect and people began to settle on the now viable planets.
The drug had to be administered via injection every month for a period of a year for it to build up in the system enough to require no further injections. about ten years after the drug went public, settlers began to exhibit signs of weakening bone density. After some research it was also determined that this bone condition was passed on to the settlers children.

Shameful decline

An investigation was launched and it was discovered that The Genie corporation had made several shortcuts in the development process, in order to beat the competion to a working cure. There was also evidence of corruption at the approval level and several members of the approval committee were brought under investigation. Once the truth of the negligence was made public, the company suffered huge financial losses in compensation claims and it's reputation was torn to shreds.

Type

Corporation, Pharmaceutical

The Genie Corporation did not survive the financial losses, nor the damage to it's credibility. However, although the company itself has benn swllowed up by the competition, the damage it caused still lives on within those who live in the affected settlements. The bone condition has become hereditry and many who are born on these new planets, who are descended of the original settlers can still suffer from this painful condition.