A Deadly Fairy Tale: The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex
Linda
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex: A Deadly Fairy Tale
by Dr. Doug Henderson and Dr. Gary Null
.
Global Research, October 21, 2009
Progressive Radio Network - 2009-10-20
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It has been a particularly bad month for the pharmaceutical industrial
complex in its ongoing litigations in American courts. Among the main
pharmaceutical headlines, Merck’s Gardasil vaccine for HPV, now being
widely administered to pre-teens, was found to be linked to
amyltrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease;
following a $1.4 billion fine in promoting one of its blockbuster
drugs Zyprexa off-label, deceptive correspondence was uncovered by Eli
Lilly gaming the system again by promoting another one of its drugs,
Cymbalta, off-label for fibromyalgia; AstraZeneca was fined $160
million for scamming the Medicaid system in Kentucky after being fined
$215 million for ripping off Alabama; Glaxo lost a Pennsylvania trial
for failing to warn doctors and pregnant women of the dangers of its
antidepressant drug Paxil related to birth defects; and Pfizer scored
a record-breaking fine of $2.3 billion for illegally marketing several
drugs over the years: Bextra, Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica. These kinds of
charges, among the many others, have become a habit for drug makers
for the past dozen years.
When we speak of the pharmaceutical industry complex, it does not
refer solely to private drug manufacturers. The complex, like a Matrix
that holds captive the health of the nation in medical slavery by its
own design and manipulation, is a consortium, a spiders’ web woven
with financial attachments throughout the medical profession. In
addition to the pharmaceutical and medical device firms, this complex
includes every government health agency—the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), and or course the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS)—as well as drug lobbying firms now
employing a large number of former Congresspersons, insurance and HMO
companies, all of the leading professional medical associations such
as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Psychiatric
Association (APA), the majority of medical schools and their research
departments who are heavily funded by drug money, many of the most
prestigious medical journals, and ultimately all of this filtering
downward to the physicians who diagnose our illnesses and prescribe
our medications and treatments.
America is rightly regarded as having led much of the world in many
qualitative innovations in all fields. That reputation is duly
deserved. However, there is a new dynamic at work that is causing this
reputation to be challenged. We are a nation that prides itself in our
humanity, our sense of fairness, but today there is a growing concern
that we are now being monikered as a country held hostage to a
national security complex, which includes the largest military complex
in the world, an obscenely expensive healthcare system and self-
serving bureaucracies and private industries that serve their own
financial ends. So it is not surprising that after spending this year
$2.6 trillion on healthcare, we have such little health to show for
it. There are second world countries where people live longer and
healthier lives. And we have the worst healthcare among developed
nations. So what have we received for our $2.6 trillion.
As the current healthcare debate continues to rage over in sundries—
the $200 billion net profit health insurance industry—the entire
deliberation over disease prevention and treatment has been
overshadowed. And amidst this partisan and ideological anarchy,
perpetuated by our elected officials, the media, and fueled by the
pharmaceutical complex, two other areas America excels as a leader
above all other developed nations is in being the premier breeding
ground for the pharmaceutical industrial complex’s greatest profits
and, second, as the world’s exemplar in medical fraud and corruption.
The fairy tale of America’s health as being best served by drugs is a
creation of this complex, a lullaby that brings ill citizens
repeatedly to their doctors and hospitals for diagnosis and treatment,
or simply to deny healthcare altogether to the uninsured.
The country is pacified by a blind belief that the drugs being
prescribed to them have been proven safe because our government health
agencies have our physical health and well-being in their best
intentions. This is a lie, an extraordinarily deadly lie.
Iatrogenesis, medically induced injury and death, is the number one
cause of death in American medicine annually, since only a small
percentage of these deaths are actually reported. Each year more
Americans die from preventable deaths due to our medical system than
all military causalities in the two world wars combined. This is
tantamount to medical genocide. One of the major causes of these
deaths is the overmedication of Americans in all ages. The constant
need for profits has created an environment that allows the
pharmaceutical industrial complex to use their enormous financial and
political clout to literally make normal life experiences into new
diseases, such as social anxiety disorder, in order to sell its drugs.
The pharmaceutical industry has been given the authority to
pathologize life, with the drugging of our children, seniors, etc. For
example, the leading cause of AIDS deaths today is a result of liver
failure. This is not a condition of HIV infection, but a direct result
of the anti-HIV drug AZT. Is it little wonder then that we are being
intimidated and frightened into believing that mandatory vaccination
is being touted even though the science of efficacy and safety, even
the need, for these new swine flu vaccines is patently unproven. It is
perhaps one of the largest falsehoods ever perpetuated on humanity
that dwarfs the sleaze on Wall Street.
If any one of us committed manslaughter, we would be behind bars
instead of walking a crimson carpet into the offices of our elected
officials in the Congress and Senate or past the gates guarded by the
nation’s Cerberus, Rahm Emmanuel, to lobby the White House. Yet if we
are a pharmaceutical executive, or a lobbyist representing a drug
company who has collected a litany of charges including medical fraud,
criminal salesmanship, gaming the insurance industries, repeated lying
to federal officials, and manipulation of data regarding life-
threatening adverse effects of drugs that have killed so many people,
we can walk away with a fine, a surge in the stock market after a
settlement, a financial bonus, and the personal satisfaction in not
having to apologize so we can continue business as usual. This is the
power the pharmaceutical industrial complex possesses and its usurped
right to distain every noble principle in the Hippocratic Oath that
every physician dedicates her or himself to live by, “That I will
exercise my art solely for the cure of my patients, and will give no
drug and perform no operation for a criminal purpose.”
Every American who is prescribed a drug by a physician has the belief
that that pill has undergone rigorous trials to scrutinize its safety.
And when there are known potential adverse effects, we blindly assume
these are known to the attending physician. However, this is a myth
perpetuated not only by drug makers, but by our own federal health
agencies. A 2003 investigation published in The Independent in the UK
reported that “under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, the
FDA routinely conceals information it considers commercially
sensitive, leaving medical specialists unable to assess the true risks
[of approved drugs].” One case involved a very popular over-the-
counter drug, the painkiller ibuprofen. The investigators’ search
uncovered concealed data showing that ibuprofen increased heart attack
risks by 25 percent. Even Freedom of Information (FOI) filings to the
FDA do not produce all the information being requested. For example, a
group of Swiss investigators filed an FOI to procure trial data about
the musculoskeletal pain drug Celecoxib and received back only 16 of
the 27 trials conducted on it. A separate FOI concerning a similar
drug, Valdecoxib, had pages and paragraphs deleted because sections of
the document were marked as “trade secrets.” An even worse case
involving a leaked report concerning internal memos and secret FDA
reports provided detailed evidence that the FDA approved 9 different
antidepressants, representing a total of 22 studies enrolling 4,250
children, while knowing full well that the risk of “suicide-related
events” was twice as high as children taking a placebo. These are
just several examples among numerous others.
The pharmaceutical industrial complex is perhaps the largest, most
influential cartel in the world. This becomes evident after
considering the billions of dollars and other currencies drug
companies have been forced to pay for a wide variety of corruption
charges. Our analysis of 724 legal settlements from a random sampling
among the over one hundred thousand by pharmaceutical corporations
totally $87 billion is just a small indication about how pervasive Big
Pharma’s criminality since the vast majority of settlements are
concluded outside of court and remain confidential.
It is extremely difficult to comprehend why the United States
principle federal health agencies, particularly the FDA and National
Institutes of Health (NIH), with the specific mandate to provide
oversight on all pre-approved drug applications and delegated with the
task to assure drugs are safe or at least specify clearly their known
dangers, are so reprehensible and inept. There is only one rational
answer and that is the pharmaceutical industry is the FDA’s largest
client, and this relationship goes much deeper than the FDA
functioning as an objective regulator investigating pharmaceutical
products before being released upon the American population. It is not
to far afield to suggest that as it stands now the US regulatory
agencies are an extension of corporate America.
As serial offenders of product safety cover-ups for over a decade,
drugs have injured and killed millions. In the case Merck’s Vioxx,
this one drug has killed 44,000 people and injured 120,000 others.
Only in America could you kill 44,000 and not go to jail and get a
raise. Should we assume, therefore, that the pharmaceutical complex
should be trusted without challenge? We have also been asked to
believe that the manufacturers were guided by a sense of public
service. But when examining the top ten drugs sold, the facts reveal
otherwise. In one example, manufacturers marked up a drug an
astounding 500,000% over its equivalent generic version. Six other
drugs were marked up 2000%. Pharmaceutical companies make profits
higher than oil companies.
Big Pharma’s impact is felt almost everywhere. But nowhere is it felt
more than in the legal system. In a recently concluded, short-term
study, we found 724 cases involving Big Pharma in which either the
case ended in a verdict against the pharmaceutical company or the
company settled. The number of cases is staggering, as are the dollar
amounts. These cases cover practically every type of civil and
criminal case. From products that kill, harm and maim, to false
claims, to not paying taxes, to patent infringements, to bribery, to
publishing false scientific journals. Yet, in spite of the tens of
thousands of lawsuits won against Big Pharma, it still conducts
business as usual.
Eli Lilly flooded state Medicaid programs with Zyprexa: its superstar,
antipsychotic drug. In 2003, worldwide sales of Zyprexa grossed $4.28
billion, amounting to almost one third of Lilly’s total sales. In the
United States, during the same year, Zyprexa grossed $2.63 billion. A
whopping 70 percent of these sales were directly related to government
agencies—principally Medicaid. Fast-forward six years to 2009, Eli
Lilly pleaded guilty for having illegally marketed Zyprexa for an
unapproved use to treat dementia, and will pay $1.42 billion to settle
civil suits and end the criminal investigation. Lilly agreed to pay
$800 million to settle civil suits. It will pay $615 million to
resolve the criminal probe, and plead guilty to a misdemeanor in
violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for promoting Zyprexa as
a dementia treatment.
Did Lilly also know of the possibility that Zyprexa could cause
diabetes, which was also kept concealed under the protection of the
FDA? They most certainly did, which makes their behavior all the more
reprehensible. In 2002, British and Japanese regulatory agencies
issued a warning that Zyprexa may cause diabetes. In addition, even
after the FDA issued a similar warning in 2003, Lilly did not pull
Zyprexa from the market. This becomes all the more understandable
after it is taken into consideration that Lilly is also the largest
maker of diabetes medications.
An article by Mike Adams, the Natural News editor, states that Merck
employees had a “hit list” of doctors they sought to “neutralize.”
This allegation was confirmed when documents that had been secret were
revealed during a Vioxx court case. The Australian revealed that the
documents surfaced in the Federal Court in Melbourne and exposed the
criminal intent of Merck employees who admitted they were going to
“stop funding to institutions” and “interfere with academic
appointments.” One Merck employee testified (about the doctors on
the hit list), “We may need to seek them out and destroy them where
they live.” Merck threatened or intimidated at least eight clinical
investigators, testimony in court revealed. There are other, similar
stories in which Merck deals with dissent by attempting to destroy the
lives and careers of academics who don’t review their drugs
favorably.
Merck is steeped in a well-documented record of criminality. Such
actions include, but are not limited to, intentionally hiding the
liver-damaging effects of its cholesterol drug, intentionally
withholding the release of clinical data that revealed the failures of
another cholesterol drug; it has dumped vaccine waste and
manufacturing chemicals into water supplies; it opened up offshore
banking accounts to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes,
and it was caught in a huge scheme of scientific fraud when it was
discovered that the company used in-house writers to secretly write so-
called “independent” studies that were published in peer-reviewed
medical journals.
Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which the U.S. Department of
Justice and the SEC enforce, it is illegal to bribe a foreign
government official in order to obtain or retain business. Apparently,
Bristol-Myers and Schering Plough were unaware of this law. According
to the Associated Press, both drug makers were engaged in influencing
government officials in Germany and Poland respectively.
Earlier this year, an article in the Boston Business Journal reported
that a former drug company sales executive pleaded guilty in Boston
federal court to telling the roughly 100 representatives she
supervised that they should promote a pain drug for uses she knew had
been rejected by the FDA. Bextra was the drug she pleaded guilty to
inappropriately selling. Pfizer has since pulled it from the market.
According to a press release from U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan's
office, “Holloway was aware of the FDA's safety concerns, but...she
nonetheless had her sales staff of approximately 100 employees sells
Bextra for precisely the uses that the FDA refused to approve.”
The pharmaceutical complex has also infiltrated the majority of
American medical schools and medical research departments. A recent
survey in the Journal of the American Medical Association discovered
that 60% of academic department chairs have personal ties to industry
(as consultants, board members, or paid speakers), while 66% of the
academic departments had institutional ties to industry. Researchers
who receive funding from drug and medical-device manufacturers are up
to 3.5 times as likely to state their study drug or medical device
works than are researchers without such funding.
In America, one can hardly turn on the television or pick up a
newspaper without reading about the hot button issue of health care
reform. Why such emotion? Why are, seemingly, rational people so
intransigent and unwilling to budge from their positions? Could
lobbyists have anything to do with this? According to OpenSecrets.org,
there are 3093 lobbyists in the health field and Big Pharma now spends
approximately $1.2 million daily to persuade Congress to act according
to their script. An investigation conducted by Medical Verdicts & Law
Weekly found that 30 key lawmakers are involved in health legislation
totaling $11 million in health investments. Three of every four major
health firms have at least one lobbyist who worked for a congressman.
Startlingly, nine lobbyists employed by Big Pharma are former
congressional staffers who are still well-connected to Capitol Hill.
The conflicts of interest are everywhere. Judd Gregg (R-NH), the Obama
nominee for Commerce Secretary, who withdrew because of opposition to
the Administration's agenda, is a senior member of the Health
Committee. He revealed that he has $254,000-$560,000 in health
stocks."
In 2000, Mylan Labs settled a case for $100 million. What the numbers
don’t tell you is the story behind the numbers. In 1998, Mylan raised
the wholesale price of clorazepate, a generic tranquilizer, to $377.00
(for 500 tablets) from $11.36 in one year. This represents a 3000%
increase on a generic drug.
It was subsequently revealed that Mylan conspired with the main
manufacturer of the active, indispensible ingredient to have an
exclusive agreement. The agreement prevented any other manufacturers
from producing the drug, for without the active ingredient, the drug
could not be made. Mylan’s deception was uncovered and it had to pay
$100 million to settle an FTC antitrust case. But Mylan represents
only an infinitesimal percentage of such examples. In all likelihood,
the vast majority of similar cases remain undetected. The FDA’s under-
regulation and erroneous oversight encourages this type of corruption.
Another case included in our study states, “TAP [Taketa-Abbott
Pharmaceutical] Pharmaceutical Products Inc. -- $875,000,000 under the
False Claims Act.” TAP agreed to pay $875 million to resolve criminal
charges and civil liabilities in connection with its fraudulent drug
pricing and marketing conduct regarding the drug Lupron, according to
a press release from the Department of Justice. Lupron is used by male
cancer patients to suppress the production of testosterone. Another
drug worked as well, so to make Lupron the drug of choice for this
condition, TAP played dirty by giving kickbacks to physicians
prescribing the drug, thus ensuring its ridiculously high price would
be maintained. Even though criminal indictments were filed against TAP
Pharmaceutical officials, Lupron’s price remains overly inflated.
Ever wonder why Big Pharma would engage in all manner of illegal
activity? In light of the steady stream of articles detailing how the
elderly are oftentimes forced to choose between purchasing their
medication and buying food, a good place to begin is to examine what
it costs to make a drug and what Big Pharma sells it for. Life
Extension magazine conducted an original investigative report in which
it compared the actual price of a popular drug and how much the
generic version of its active ingredients costs. Examine these
figures:
WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST
BRAND NAME
CONSUMER PRICE
(For 100 tabs/caps)
COST OF GENERIC ACTIVE INGREDIENT
(For 100 tabs/caps)
PERCENT MARKUP
Celebrex 100 mg
$130.27
$0.60
21,712%
Claritin 10 mg
$215.17
$0.71
30,306%
Keflex 250 mg
$157.39
$1.88
8,372%
Lipitor 20 mg
$272.37
$5.80
4,696%
Norvasc 10 mg
$188.29
$0.14
134,493%
Paxil 20 mg
$220.27
$7.60
2,898%
Prevacid 30 mg
$344.77
$1.01
34,136%
Prilosec 20 mg
$360.97
$0.52
69,417%
Prozac 20 mg
$247.47
$0.11
224,973%
Tenormin 50 mg
$104.47
$0.13
80,362%
Vasotec 10 mg
$102.37
$0.20
51,185%
Xanax 1mg
$136.79
$0.024
569,958%
Zestril 20 mg
$89.89
$3.20
2,809%
Zithromax 600mg
$1,482.19
$18.78
7,892%
Zocor 40mg
$350.27
$8.63
4,059%
Zoloft 50mg
$206.87
$1.75
11,821%
In order to understand how we can spend 2.6 trillion this year on
healthcare, but not reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease,
diabetes, obesity, mental conditions, arthritis, etc., we must realize
this is a game. With each piece of the puzzle, feeding into a single
picture of a massively corrupt, unethical, and frequently illegal
system controlled by relatively few corporations within the
pharmaceutical complex and the health insurance industry, are the ring
leaders. They in turn influence thousands of lobbyists, paid-off
scientists and academicians, and policymakers, especially those who
rule on important health oversight committees. Health officials and
legislators in turn solicit expert witnesses, preselected by the
cartels, to position their drug agendas in the most favorable manner.
The pharmaceutical cartel also has direct connections with its
supporting scientific advisory boards and key foundations. These
foundations, supported by policy think tanks who supply the so-called
independent experts, then lobby the upper echelon within the FDA, NIH,
CDC, NIMH, HHS. Ideally they hire former health commissioners and
legislators previously players in the game to assist those same
federal agencies to see their drugs guided through the regulatory
process. Public relations and advertizing firms are contracted to give
the public impression that these drugs are effective and safe for the
sole reason they have received official licensing. In addition, the
cartel creates front organizations with consumer-friendly titles whose
representatives appear at national conferences and seminars beholden
to special drug interests. Finally, the drug corporations set money
aside to be paid out in settlements. With the exception of class
action suits, the majority of cases for injury and death are
accompanied by confidentiality clauses to prevent public disclosure of
data the companies wish to remain secret.
This is how the medical system is rigged and it is why we can watch 60
Minutes or read the New York Times serving as pharmaceutical shills to
encourage vaccination, yet refusing to air or print the dissenting
voices who have the scientific evidence to show it is a massive fraud.
Therefore, the public is misled every step of the way. Victims of
injury, such as the tens of thousands of children, now at 1 in 91
children, with autism spectrum disorder, are forced to fend for
themselves. Parents know far better than the FDA and CDC, when their
perfectly normal child after a vaccination or a series of vaccines
shortly thereafter is lost, withdrawn into the dark corners of autism.
And yet the pediatrician and psychologist will say the child must have
had a genetic defect. The CDC, FDA and NIH, with an orchestrated
voice, say it is not the vaccine. Everyone within the pharmaceutical
industrial complex denies the truth. Only now, during the healthcare
debate, are we seeing clearly the rampant politics of the
pharmaceutical and insurance industries. The veils are finally being
removed. If it were not for the healthcare debacle, we might still not
know how the game is rigged and why our politicians and health
officials will not tolerate any real reform and accountability at any
level.
If we want to clean up American medicine, the corporate shield must be
removed and politicians, health officials and pharmaceutical
executives must be held accountable. If they are threatened with jail
time for manslaughter by pushing dangerous drugs, then we will see
less life-threatening drugs go to market.
We are in a perfect storm without a life raft. We much take back our
freedoms of choice and demand legal accountability or nothing will
change.
Doug Henderson, JD is a legal mediator specializing in civil rights
and Director of Gary Null and Associates in New York City.
Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation’s longest running public radio
program on nutrition and natural health and a multi-award-winning
director of progressive documentary films, including Vaccine Nation
and Autism: Made in the USA. Dr. Null is also the plaintiff on a law
suit against the FDA to prevent the launch of the swine flu vaccine
until safety studies have been thoroughly conducted.
Doug Henderson is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global
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JD
Viva Obama - Biden and the Dems. :-)
Linda wrote:
> http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15758
>
> The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex: A Deadly Fairy Tale
>
> by Dr. Doug Henderson and Dr. Gary Null
>
> .
>
>
> Global Research, October 21, 2009
> Progressive Radio Network - 2009-10-20
>
> Email this article to a friend
> Print this article
>
>
>
> It has been a particularly bad month for the pharmaceutical industrial
> complex in its ongoing litigations in American courts. Among the main
> pharmaceutical headlines, Merck�s Gardasil vaccine for HPV, now being
> widely administered to pre-teens, was found to be linked to
> amyltrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig�s disease;
> following a $1.4 billion fine in promoting one of its blockbuster
> drugs Zyprexa off-label, deceptive correspondence was uncovered by Eli
> Lilly gaming the system again by promoting another one of its drugs,
> Cymbalta, off-label for fibromyalgia; AstraZeneca was fined $160
> million for scamming the Medicaid system in Kentucky after being fined
> $215 million for ripping off Alabama; Glaxo lost a Pennsylvania trial
> for failing to warn doctors and pregnant women of the dangers of its
> antidepressant drug Paxil related to birth defects; and Pfizer scored
> a record-breaking fine of $2.3 billion for illegally marketing several
> drugs over the years: Bextra, Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica. These kinds of
> charges, among the many others, have become a habit for drug makers
> for the past dozen years.
>
> When we speak of the pharmaceutical industry complex, it does not
> refer solely to private drug manufacturers. The complex, like a Matrix
> that holds captive the health of the nation in medical slavery by its
> own design and manipulation, is a consortium, a spiders� web woven
> with financial attachments throughout the medical profession. In
> addition to the pharmaceutical and medical device firms, this complex
> includes every government health agency�the Food and Drug
> Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the
> National Institutes of Health (NIH), and or course the Department of
> Health and Human Services (HHS)�as well as drug lobbying firms now
> employing a large number of former Congresspersons, insurance and HMO
> companies, all of the leading professional medical associations such
> as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Psychiatric
> Association (APA), the majority of medical schools and their research
> departments who are heavily funded by drug money, many of the most
> prestigious medical journals, and ultimately all of this filtering
> downward to the physicians who diagnose our illnesses and prescribe
> our medications and treatments.
>
> America is rightly regarded as having led much of the world in many
> qualitative innovations in all fields. That reputation is duly
> deserved. However, there is a new dynamic at work that is causing this
> reputation to be challenged. We are a nation that prides itself in our
> humanity, our sense of fairness, but today there is a growing concern
> that we are now being monikered as a country held hostage to a
> national security complex, which includes the largest military complex
> in the world, an obscenely expensive healthcare system and self-
> serving bureaucracies and private industries that serve their own
> financial ends. So it is not surprising that after spending this year
> $2.6 trillion on healthcare, we have such little health to show for
> it. There are second world countries where people live longer and
> healthier lives. And we have the worst healthcare among developed
> nations. So what have we received for our $2.6 trillion.
>
> As the current healthcare debate continues to rage over in sundries�
> the $200 billion net profit health insurance industry�the entire
> deliberation over disease prevention and treatment has been
> overshadowed. And amidst this partisan and ideological anarchy,
> perpetuated by our elected officials, the media, and fueled by the
> pharmaceutical complex, two other areas America excels as a leader
> above all other developed nations is in being the premier breeding
> ground for the pharmaceutical industrial complex�s greatest profits
> and, second, as the world�s exemplar in medical fraud and corruption.
> The fairy tale of America�s health as being best served by drugs is a
> nation�s Cerberus, Rahm Emmanuel, to lobby the White House. Yet if we
> are a pharmaceutical executive, or a lobbyist representing a drug
> company who has collected a litany of charges including medical fraud,
> criminal salesmanship, gaming the insurance industries, repeated lying
> to federal officials, and manipulation of data regarding life-
> threatening adverse effects of drugs that have killed so many people,
> we can walk away with a fine, a surge in the stock market after a
> settlement, a financial bonus, and the personal satisfaction in not
> having to apologize so we can continue business as usual. This is the
> power the pharmaceutical industrial complex possesses and its usurped
> right to distain every noble principle in the Hippocratic Oath that
> every physician dedicates her or himself to live by, �That I will
> exercise my art solely for the cure of my patients, and will give no
> drug and perform no operation for a criminal purpose.�
>
> Every American who is prescribed a drug by a physician has the belief
> that that pill has undergone rigorous trials to scrutinize its safety.
> And when there are known potential adverse effects, we blindly assume
> these are known to the attending physician. However, this is a myth
> perpetuated not only by drug makers, but by our own federal health
> agencies. A 2003 investigation published in The Independent in the UK
> reported that �under pressure from the pharmaceutical industry, the
> FDA routinely conceals information it considers commercially
> sensitive, leaving medical specialists unable to assess the true risks
> [of approved drugs].� One case involved a very popular over-the-
> counter drug, the painkiller ibuprofen. The investigators� search
> uncovered concealed data showing that ibuprofen increased heart attack
> risks by 25 percent. Even Freedom of Information (FOI) filings to the
> FDA do not produce all the information being requested. For example, a
> group of Swiss investigators filed an FOI to procure trial data about
> the musculoskeletal pain drug Celecoxib and received back only 16 of
> the 27 trials conducted on it. A separate FOI concerning a similar
> drug, Valdecoxib, had pages and paragraphs deleted because sections of
> the document were marked as �trade secrets.� An even worse case
> involving a leaked report concerning internal memos and secret FDA
> reports provided detailed evidence that the FDA approved 9 different
> antidepressants, representing a total of 22 studies enrolling 4,250
> children, while knowing full well that the risk of �suicide-related
> events� was twice as high as children taking a placebo. These are
> just several examples among numerous others.
>
> The pharmaceutical industrial complex is perhaps the largest, most
> influential cartel in the world. This becomes evident after
> considering the billions of dollars and other currencies drug
> companies have been forced to pay for a wide variety of corruption
> charges. Our analysis of 724 legal settlements from a random sampling
> among the over one hundred thousand by pharmaceutical corporations
> totally $87 billion is just a small indication about how pervasive Big
> Pharma�s criminality since the vast majority of settlements are
> concluded outside of court and remain confidential.
>
> It is extremely difficult to comprehend why the United States
> principle federal health agencies, particularly the FDA and National
> Institutes of Health (NIH), with the specific mandate to provide
> oversight on all pre-approved drug applications and delegated with the
> task to assure drugs are safe or at least specify clearly their known
> dangers, are so reprehensible and inept. There is only one rational
> answer and that is the pharmaceutical industry is the FDA�s largest
> client, and this relationship goes much deeper than the FDA
> functioning as an objective regulator investigating pharmaceutical
> products before being released upon the American population. It is not
> to far afield to suggest that as it stands now the US regulatory
> agencies are an extension of corporate America.
>
> As serial offenders of product safety cover-ups for over a decade,
> drugs have injured and killed millions. In the case Merck�s Vioxx,
> this one drug has killed 44,000 people and injured 120,000 others.
> Only in America could you kill 44,000 and not go to jail and get a
> raise. Should we assume, therefore, that the pharmaceutical complex
> should be trusted without challenge? We have also been asked to
> believe that the manufacturers were guided by a sense of public
> service. But when examining the top ten drugs sold, the facts reveal
> otherwise. In one example, manufacturers marked up a drug an
> astounding 500,000% over its equivalent generic version. Six other
> drugs were marked up 2000%. Pharmaceutical companies make profits
> higher than oil companies.
>
> Big Pharma�s impact is felt almost everywhere. But nowhere is it felt
> more than in the legal system. In a recently concluded, short-term
> study, we found 724 cases involving Big Pharma in which either the
> case ended in a verdict against the pharmaceutical company or the
> company settled. The number of cases is staggering, as are the dollar
> amounts. These cases cover practically every type of civil and
> criminal case. From products that kill, harm and maim, to false
> claims, to not paying taxes, to patent infringements, to bribery, to
> publishing false scientific journals. Yet, in spite of the tens of
> thousands of lawsuits won against Big Pharma, it still conducts
> business as usual.
>
> Eli Lilly flooded state Medicaid programs with Zyprexa: its superstar,
> antipsychotic drug. In 2003, worldwide sales of Zyprexa grossed $4.28
> billion, amounting to almost one third of Lilly�s total sales. In the
> United States, during the same year, Zyprexa grossed $2.63 billion. A
> whopping 70 percent of these sales were directly related to government
> agencies�principally Medicaid. Fast-forward six years to 2009, Eli
> Lilly pleaded guilty for having illegally marketed Zyprexa for an
> unapproved use to treat dementia, and will pay $1.42 billion to settle
> civil suits and end the criminal investigation. Lilly agreed to pay
> $800 million to settle civil suits. It will pay $615 million to
> resolve the criminal probe, and plead guilty to a misdemeanor in
> violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act for promoting Zyprexa as
> a dementia treatment.
>
> Did Lilly also know of the possibility that Zyprexa could cause
> diabetes, which was also kept concealed under the protection of the
> FDA? They most certainly did, which makes their behavior all the more
> reprehensible. In 2002, British and Japanese regulatory agencies
> issued a warning that Zyprexa may cause diabetes. In addition, even
> after the FDA issued a similar warning in 2003, Lilly did not pull
> Zyprexa from the market. This becomes all the more understandable
> after it is taken into consideration that Lilly is also the largest
> maker of diabetes medications.
>
> An article by Mike Adams, the Natural News editor, states that Merck
> employees had a �hit list� of doctors they sought to �neutralize.�
> This allegation was confirmed when documents that had been secret were
> revealed during a Vioxx court case. The Australian revealed that the
> documents surfaced in the Federal Court in Melbourne and exposed the
> criminal intent of Merck employees who admitted they were going to
> �stop funding to institutions� and �interfere with academic
> appointments.� One Merck employee testified (about the doctors on
> the hit list), �We may need to seek them out and destroy them where
> they live.� Merck threatened or intimidated at least eight clinical
> investigators, testimony in court revealed. There are other, similar
> stories in which Merck deals with dissent by attempting to destroy the
> lives and careers of academics who don�t review their drugs
> favorably.
>
> Merck is steeped in a well-documented record of criminality. Such
> actions include, but are not limited to, intentionally hiding the
> liver-damaging effects of its cholesterol drug, intentionally
> withholding the release of clinical data that revealed the failures of
> another cholesterol drug; it has dumped vaccine waste and
> manufacturing chemicals into water supplies; it opened up offshore
> banking accounts to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes,
> and it was caught in a huge scheme of scientific fraud when it was
> discovered that the company used in-house writers to secretly write so-
> called �independent� studies that were published in peer-reviewed
> medical journals.
>
> Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which the U.S. Department of
> Justice and the SEC enforce, it is illegal to bribe a foreign
> government official in order to obtain or retain business. Apparently,
> Bristol-Myers and Schering Plough were unaware of this law. According
> to the Associated Press, both drug makers were engaged in influencing
> government officials in Germany and Poland respectively.
>
> Earlier this year, an article in the Boston Business Journal reported
> that a former drug company sales executive pleaded guilty in Boston
> federal court to telling the roughly 100 representatives she
> supervised that they should promote a pain drug for uses she knew had
> been rejected by the FDA. Bextra was the drug she pleaded guilty to
> inappropriately selling. Pfizer has since pulled it from the market.
> According to a press release from U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan's
> office, �Holloway was aware of the FDA's safety concerns, but...she
> nonetheless had her sales staff of approximately 100 employees sells
> Bextra for precisely the uses that the FDA refused to approve.�
> don�t tell you is the story behind the numbers. In 1998, Mylan raised
> the wholesale price of clorazepate, a generic tranquilizer, to $377.00
> (for 500 tablets) from $11.36 in one year. This represents a 3000%
> increase on a generic drug.
>
> It was subsequently revealed that Mylan conspired with the main
> manufacturer of the active, indispensible ingredient to have an
> exclusive agreement. The agreement prevented any other manufacturers
> from producing the drug, for without the active ingredient, the drug
> could not be made. Mylan�s deception was uncovered and it had to pay
> $100 million to settle an FTC antitrust case. But Mylan represents
> only an infinitesimal percentage of such examples. In all likelihood,
> the vast majority of similar cases remain undetected. The FDA�s under-
> regulation and erroneous oversight encourages this type of corruption.
>
> Another case included in our study states, �TAP [Taketa-Abbott
> Pharmaceutical] Pharmaceutical Products Inc. -- $875,000,000 under the
> False Claims Act.� TAP agreed to pay $875 million to resolve criminal
> charges and civil liabilities in connection with its fraudulent drug
> pricing and marketing conduct regarding the drug Lupron, according to
> a press release from the Department of Justice. Lupron is used by male
> cancer patients to suppress the production of testosterone. Another
> drug worked as well, so to make Lupron the drug of choice for this
> condition, TAP played dirty by giving kickbacks to physicians
> prescribing the drug, thus ensuring its ridiculously high price would
> be maintained. Even though criminal indictments were filed against TAP
> Pharmaceutical officials, Lupron�s price remains overly inflated.
> Dr. Gary Null is the host of the nation�s longest running public radio
> � Copyright Doug Henderson , Progressive Radio Network, 2009
>
> The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15758
>
> Privacy Policy
>
> � Copyright 2005-2009 GlobalResearch.ca
> Web site engine by Polygraphx Multimedia � Copyright 2005-2009
t
"JD" <J...@NoDen.con> wrote in message
news:7kcav6F...@mid.individual.net...
> What a delight finally to have a government that looks after its people.
>
> Viva Obama - Biden and the Dems. :-)
>
them...@webtv.net
depression med for MS and other issues. Went looking for discussion grps
re depression and "fell into the briar patch" here! Have c/c/p'd the
article, under "fair use", to the MS discuss grp I'm in. I'm very new
there, but all are concerned with issues touched on in this article. I
just can't thank you enough. We get no guarantees in this world. So
information becomes paramount to decision-making. Bless you!
magpie
Tristan
There's a lot of truth in the article, but I would relabel the problem
as something like the "the healthcare industry complex." It's not just
Medicare fraud or greedy pharmaceutical companies or doctors, or
outright scammers. Healthcare represents one of the largest cash cows
in the country today, and it's so easy to cheat that everyone involved,
from doctors to hospitals to the pharm industry, has some way of
grabbing as large a slice of the pie as they can get away with. That's
not just my opinion: It's been documented in many independent studies.
Caveat emptor!
mmmousemaid
>
> read more »
Thanks for this article. It's one giant mess. I read Freeman's bio
on lobotomy and
how it completely put a halt on brain biology and surgery because he
screwed up
big time (late 40s early 50s). It was since that catastrophe that
drugs became the forefront method
of treating mental illness. Just the immense number of drugs of some
derivative
formulae makes one wonder what is going on. So glad to be on lithium
for 28 yrs.
I was offered to switch and knew better and politely declined pointing
out the
numerous possible problems -- like adjusting a thyroid now working at
1 or 2%
of the normal level due to lithium-induced hypothyroidism. Nobody
knows if it could be reversed if taken off lithium.
I also have doubts about the application of some drugs for some
disorders and
whether they are appropriate or ever necessary. Another curiousity --
endocrinology
rarely played a role in examining mental illness, except in the
1800s. Tunnel vision?
Mmmousemaid
Doug Laidlaw
the industry having a "hidden agenda" isn't exactly helpful in that regard.
We depend on the industry for our medicines. We depend on the doctors and
other qualified professionals to tell us how to use them - not cranks with
some health food to sell. There are plenty of cranks with books to sell as
well. The MentalMeds book at http://www.MentalMeds.org is in a different
category - it is a statement of facts with no quackish "treatment" to sell.
There are some good CMI sites with a similar purpose.
Treatment should be a team effort between yourself and a qualified health
professional. My problem is that my wife is a pharmacist, so my pdoc and
she talk shop and don't even ask my opinion. If it works, I need to be
taken off it, apparently. I am hoping that when I finish up in hospital, my
pdoc will get the message.
Doug.
mmmousemaid
> In the end, we all have responsibility for our own health. Talking about
> the industry having a "hidden agenda" isn't exactly helpful in that regard.
> We depend on the industry for our medicines. We depend on the doctors and
> other qualified professionals to tell us how to use them - not cranks with
> some health food to sell. There are plenty of cranks with books to sell as
> category - it is a statement of facts with no quackish "treatment" to sell.
> There are some good CMI sites with a similar purpose.
>
> Treatment should be a team effort between yourself and a qualified health
> professional. My problem is that my wife is a pharmacist, so my pdoc and
> she talk shop and don't even ask my opinion. If it works, I need to be
> taken off it, apparently. I am hoping that when I finish up in hospital, my
> pdoc will get the message.
>
> Doug.
>
> Tristan wrote:
> >> TYVM!!! I am "in the process" of getting to a psychiatrist to get
> >> depression med for MS and other issues. Went looking for discussion grps
> >> re depression and "fell into the briar patch" here! Have c/c/p'd the
> >> article, under "fair use", to the MS discuss grp I'm in. I'm very new
> >> there, but all are concerned with issues touched on in this article. I
> >> just can't thank you enough. We get no guarantees in this world. So
> >> information becomes paramount to decision-making. Bless you!
>
> > There's a lot of truth in the article, but I would relabel the problem
> > as something like the "the healthcare industry complex." It's not just
> > Medicare fraud or greedy pharmaceutical companies or doctors, or
> > outright scammers. Healthcare represents one of the largest cash cows
> > in the country today, and it's so easy to cheat that everyone involved,
> > from doctors to hospitals to the pharm industry, has some way of
> > grabbing as large a slice of the pie as they can get away with. That's
> > not just my opinion: It's been documented in many independent studies.
>
> > Caveat emptor!
I think you're lucky that your wife is a pharmacologist.
Mmmousemaid
Linda
> We depend on the industry for our medicines. We depend on the doctors and
> other qualified professionals to tell us how to use them
Soc.support.depression.treatment is the usenet forum chartered for
yourself and other drug dependent individuals to swap info and
exchange mutual support wrt your/their myriad dependencies arising
from their alleged depression.
> The MentalMeds book athttp://www.MentalMeds.orgis in a different
> category - it is a statement of facts with no quackish "treatment" to sell.
Denial isn't a river in Egypt.
Furthermore, misusing symbols, such as, donning a white coat, or,
donning a stethoscope, or, affixing an MD or Phd to one's Nom De Plume
when one doesn't possess and MD or Phd, or, affixing a Phd to one's
Nom De Plume while offering health related advice when one doesn't
possess a Phd in any health related field can and will eventually get
oneselves ARSE in the slammer for the felony a/k/a practicing medicine
without a license.
Marie
> > The MentalMeds book athttp://www.MentalMeds.orgisin a different
> > category - it is a statement of facts with no quackish "treatment" to sell.
It's a good book. However, it misses some "big picture," epidemiology
elements that the NIMH is even looking into:
Why do the Japanese have total lifetime depression rates at 2%, while
Western Europe and North America has a
15-20% lifetime rate? Especially since:
They are less happy than Americans.
They work more and are stressed more.
They live a modern, hectic lifestyle.
They smoke like crazy.
Their brains are clearly "protected" from the effects of prolonged
stress.
And this is where we must go back to why some brains are more
protected from the
effects of stress than other brains.
The only discernible difference is that their diets are radically anti-
depressant and anti-inflammatory in nature.
Ours are obviously pro-inflammatory in nature.
Linda
> On Nov 5, 7:07 pm, Linda <indomitab...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > category - it is a statement of facts with no quackish "treatment" to sell.
>
Do I need to contact your ISP regarding your violating the Millenium
Act by misattributing yours truly as the author of that blatantly
false assertion, or, are you willing to take it down your self?
Linda
>
> Why do the Japanese have total lifetime depression rates at 2%,
Japan's low depression rate is a direct function of Japan's high
suicide rate.
In Buddhist nations like Japan, Suicide aka Seppuku or Hara-kiri is
considered the appropriate action for a Japanese sociopath or
psychopath to take whenever a Japanese sociopath or psychopath brings
shame and dishonor upon themselves.
Japanese Courts have even ordered Japanese sociopaths and psychopaths
to commit Suicide aka Seppuku or Hara-kiri when a Japanese sociopath
or psychopath who brought shame and dishonor upon themselves fails to
suicide.
mmmousemaid
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> © Copyright Doug Henderson , Progressive Radio Network, 2009
>
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Interesting article; a bit biased in putting all the blame on
corporate liability, imo. The
interaction between pharmaceutical products and public health
implementation is
a big factor in adverse effects. Corporations will always have profit
as a priority,
but hospitals and medical staff are always burdened with shortages of
money, time,
and staff, and communication. Perhaps we should hand the whole game
over to the drug companies, who
have greater resources and would be more accountable for any errors
originating from
their scientific and marketing work.
Mmmousemaid