Merck Takes Their Deceptive Products To A Whole New Level

Pharmaceutical companies have used dubious means to get their products to market for decades. Whether it be an onslaught of advertisements showing happy people in a park or a guy smiling at his wife, paying off members of Congress, having their top-level employees work at the FDA or throwing gobs of money at universities to do biased research, there are many means for Big Pharma to make astronomical profits. Even with all that, Merck has redefined deception with their latest tactic to convince people their products are safe and effective.

From Attorney at Law:

Merck & Co., the pharmaceutical Goliath behind Vioxx, Gardasil, and other big-name drugs, allegedly paid the medical publishing firm Elsevier to crank out a make-believe medical journal that was nothing more than a marketing tool designed to promote the company’s products under the guise of legitimate medical research.

The journal, called Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine, was used to publish favorable research and data on Merck drugs. Merck then quoted the fictitious research in promoting its drugs as being safe. But the purported journal cannot be found on the Internet and it’s not registered with Medline, the medical journal database, leading some to call the publication a scam.

Despite the good things companies like Merck develops, every drug manufactured is tainted by methods such as creating fictitious medical journals...and all other means of deception. It is a real shame that there are pharmacists out there that want to help people, but the people that control the budget (along with some of the doctors) ruin the industry with their greed and avarice. Putting profits ahead of people, especially in the context of health care is extremely dangerous to say the least.

Now that Congress is gearing up to tackle health care reform, legislators might want to pay attention to stories like this, and ignore Merck's (and Pfizer, Amgen, etc etc) lobbyists. When we look at the facts of what goes on, both in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, only then can something be done about the problems we face.

Big Pharma Drug Dealers Look To Retool For Obama

Big Pharma has been used to years of lax oversight, unabashed commercials for profitable drugs and general use of scumbaggerous (yes, that's my word) methods such as overcharging for life-saving drugs, skimping on research for rare disease because it isn't cost-effective and lobbying Congress at a ridiculous pace. Now with Obama coming into town, they are afraid of being regulated and are ready for reform...or at least look like it.

From The Washington Post:ad_icon

"We had better self-police and stop doing the things that cause so much criticism, or we're going to get legislated and regulated by government," said W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, the Republican former congressman who runs the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade association. The changes, he said in an interview, are an effort to move away from the industry's "slash-and-burn kind of policy" in response to previous regulatory and legislative efforts.

Even before Obama's victory, the drug lobby took a dramatic political turn: In 2008, for the first time in 18 years, industry contributions to Democrats were on par with money given to Republicans, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

"PhRMA had been isolated into a one-party camp," Tauzin said. "We're trying to reposition as less of a partisan player."

Well that certainly does sound like tough talk for a new era, but let's consider the source. Billy Tauzin is famous for handing large gifts to the drug companies in exchange for his current comfy position with them. He is hardly one to be trusted with actual reform. The only reason that he wants the industry to play nice with Democrats and gain a better image is because they are afraid of looking like the gluttonous a**holes that they have been for the last eight years (and more). Real reform is only going to come from one direction, tough regulation of an industry that is insanely out of control.

Congress Threatens Big Pharma's Advertising "Privilege"

Are you annoyed by the barrage of advertising from pharmaceutical companies that promise you a better life if you would just take their drug? All sorts of gimmicks and advertising ploys are used to get people to buy their drugs (though sometimes they need to go through their doctor first) so they can look like the happy person in the TV spot. It is sickening that we have let them get away with it and most Americans probably do not know that we are alone with only New Zealand in allowing them to advertise on television or other media. Well it is time to take action.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies need to be more responsible in touting products to consumers or else face tighter controls from Congress, a top U.S. Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday.

Rep. Bart Stupak, at a hearing to discuss specific ads by Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co Inc and Schering-Plough Corp, said television commercials in particular use deceptive techniques to push products to potential patients and increase sales.

"It appears that we need to enforce significant restrictions on DTC (direct-to-consumer) ads to protect American consumers from manipulative commercials designed to mislead and deceive for the profit of pharmaceutical companies," said Stupak, head of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce investigative panel.

It truly is all about profit. Big Pharma can cry all they want that it is only meant to help people live better, but they know as well as we do that it is all about bigger and better profits for their companies. Pfizer, Merck and the rest of them should continue to research and develop life saving drugs, but let our doctors be able to prescribe medication and not these wasteful advertisements.

Boycott Johnson and Johnson For Being Evil

The evil side of Big Pharma and Johnson & Johnson in particular is being shown in the form of a lawsuit against the most prolific aid agency of all time. The claim is that the emblem (i.e. The Red Cross) is being used to make a profit off of their safety items. The pharmaceutical giant is not content that they make billions from their own products and have some sort of ridiculous fear that a non-profit such as the Red Cross would try to take away their business. WTF?

From RawStory:

After more than a century of sharing the same emblem, a red cross on a white field, Johnson & Johnson has sued the American Red Cross for using its trademark for other than non-profit purposes.

J&J claims the ARC is marketing first-aid kits to make a profit, while the Red Cross says the money from the sale of the kits goes exclusively to its relief services and called the pharmaceutical giant's lawsuit "obscene."

People around the world "look to the Red Cross emblem and see a worldwide symbol of humanitarianism. The Red Cross will vigorously defend and protect our emblem and mission," ARC President Mark Everson said Friday in a statement.

The money goes for good causes you idiots. The callousness of Johnson and Johnson is definitely on display here. To think that the Red Cross will settle or that a jury would ever bestow a dime in restitution to a pharmaceutical company as big as this one is insane. I'll definitely be boycotting them for this one, and I hope everyone will do the same.

Pot Isn't The Only Drug That Can Add To Your Waist

When I think of drugs that make you fat, marijuana and the munchies that follow immediately come to mind. However pot isn't the only drug out there that can put on the pounds. There are plenty of legal drugs made by Big Pharma that do it as well.

From The UK Independent:

Thousands of people who take prescription medicines for everyday conditions are gaining large amounts of weight as an unexpected side effect, scientists have warned.

Researchers, who found that some patients were putting on up to 22lbs in a year, say that the drugs may even be contributing to the nation's rocketing obesity epidemic.

All of the patients they studied, on medication for conditions as diverse as diabetes, epilepsy, depression, high blood pressure and schizophrenia, showed evidence of weight increase.

How exactly does that work, the big drug companies do not generally warn about weight gain for their products in the slew of potential side effects. The worst offenders are psychiatric medications, specifically Olanzapine and Clozapine from the study. Generally when you are given those types of drugs, the patients are not usually warned about gaining 20lbs a year. It isn't the 'munchies' that cause the weight gain but the specific side effects of the drugs. For example beta-blockers slow the heart rate, steroids and as noted just before, Olanazapine.

Sometimes those medications are more important to take than trying to look good for the beach. However, the drug industry wants to keep selling their product to anyone who will take them and of course the doctors who keep prescribing. The key is to watch out for the pushers and do your own research.

Big Pharma Strikes Back At Moore

As Michael Moore's new movie is making headlines across the country and even the world, do not expect Big Pharma to take this assault to their operations lying down. They have all known that Moore was filming this documentary and have been preparing to fire back at whatever Moore puts on the screen. Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen and the rest do not care that SiCKO has received a tremendous and well-received response. All they care about is their profits and for the system in Washington that rewards them to stay exactly how it has been going since Richard Nixon approved Kaiser Permanente's HMO system in the early 1970s.

The New York Sun reports on the counter-offensive:

"If you're in the policy business, your job is to find these teachable moments," the Cato Institute's director of health policy studies, Michael Cannon, said.

Cato has scheduled a breakfast symposium on Capitol Hill tomorrow featuring clips from "Sicko" and other movies documenting the health care industry. The event is expected to draw 170 guests, including congressional staffers. The "robust" turnout forced a change of venue three times to accommodate a growing list of attendees, Mr. Cannon said. "It's a nice problem to have," he said.

Cato scholars began last year writing Web log entries and op-eds on Mr. Moore's film, as well as posting pod casts to the Institute's Web site.

According to SourceWatch, a left-leaning group that tracks groups shaping public policy, several organizations staging responses to "Sicko" receive funding from pharmaceutical companies, including the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Pacific Research Institute.

Out of all these groups, none represent patients and consumers of the health care industry. This is all about the industry and their friends on Capitol Hill. The only people interested in fighting Michael Moore are those that profit off of the horror stories you learn about in SiCKO. For these people greed comes before humanity, and if they think they can refute the tidal wave of information from Moore with their well paid pails lobbyists, they have another thing coming.

Diagnosing Our Pill-Popping Culture

It seems these days there is a pill for every health problem imaginable. Even for problems that can be imagined, thanks to carefully crafted commercials made by the drug industry. Popping pills for our troubles perfectly encapsulates our easy-way-out culture. Most people can't see the big picture unfortunately, perhaps they can only see a glimmer of false light at the end of the drug culture tunnel.

Well feast your eyes on this brand new play and maybe you can catch a ray of sunlight not created in a pharmaceutical lab. "Distortion" is making its primiere at the Mark Taper Theater in Los Angeles. The play sets out to show our society that maybe, just maybe, pills aren't always the answer.

From The Huffington Post:

The madness of the pill-popping phenomenon is nicely summed up in this exchange from the play:

Doctor: People with untreated ADD are three times more likely to abuse drugs. Mama: And by "untreated" you mean --? Doctor: Unmedicated. Mama: So, if my son takes a drug, he's less likely to take...drugs?

And later, the Doctor has this to say about the potential side effects of Ritalin: "The most common are loss of appetite, delayed growth, and insomnia, but we can always add another drug like Clonidine to help the insomnia. Some children develop tics, but we can add a little Tenex to control that."

Paging Joseph Heller!

The play also effectively raises a mirror to the parents in the crowd, forcing us to question how much our Blackberry-and-cell-phone-driven, multi-tasking, media overloaded ways are impacting our kids. As Rita Wilson's character puts it at the end of the play: "What if the best thing I can give my son for Attention Deficit Disorder is my... attention?"

To be fair, the play does balance the issue out by saying that drugs can help where they are needed. However the amount of drugs that are dispensed today, especially for our children is highly out of whack. Every parent facing a 'disorderly' child should see this play and ask themselves if the pills are really worth it.

Show PhRMA The Money!

Who cares about the welfare of the American people? The old Congress certainly didn't. They let the pharmaceutical industry write legislation which increased profits by several billion dollars. The winners of this action was the industry and 15 members of Congress and their aides who got lucrative job offers to lobby for PhRMA. The losers however, are the rest of us.

Cialis Makes Soap?

I've heard before that the drug companies made a host of gimmicks to remind their doctors that their pills and concoctions are around and to generally send the message to the public that there is no health care in this country without Big Pharma's guiding hand. Of course the little toys consist of pens, pencils, notepads, clipboards and the like.

That is why this bottle of soap at my doctor's office really (a) scared the shit out of me, (b) worried me about what would happen to my hands if I used the soap and (c) made me wonder how f***ed up our medical system is today.

If you see this in your doctor's office, just remember it's okay, nothing happens to your hands. Except for getting clean that is.