Pfizer: The Drug Giant That Makes Bank from Drugs That Can Kill You

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Martha Rosenberg

Pfizer: The Drug Giant That Makes Bank from Drugs That Can Kill You
To say that Pfizer has been accused of wrongdoing is like saying BP had an oil spill.

July 10, 2010 |


The drug company Pfizer is best known for Lipitor, a drug that brings cholesterol down and Viagra, a drug that brings other things up.

But the "world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company" which sits between Goldman Sachs and Marathon Oil on the Fortune 500, is also closely associated with a seemingly never-ending series of scandals.

To say Pfizer's been accused of wrongdoing is like saying BP had an oil spill. Other drug companies have a portfolio of products, Pfizer has a portfolio of scandals including, but not limited to, Chantix, Lipitor, Viagra, Geodon, Trovan, Bextra, Celebrex, Lyrica, Zoloft, Halcion and drugs for osteoarthritis, Parkinson's disease, kidney transplants and leukemia.

During one week in June Pfizer 1) agreed to pull its 10-year-old leukemia drug Mylotarg from the market because it caused more, not less patient deaths 2) Suspended pediatric trials of Geodon two months after the FDA said children were being overdosed 3) Suspended trials of tanezumab, an osteoarthritis pain drug, because patients got worse not better, some needing joint replacements (pattern, anyone?) 4) Was investigated by the House for off-label marketing of kidney transplant drug Rapamune and targeting African-Americans 5) Saw a researcher who helped established its Bextra, Celebrex and Lyrica as effective pain meds, Scott S Reuben, MD, trotted off to prison for research fraud 6) was sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield to recoup money it overpaid for Bextra and other drugs 7) received a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requesting its whistleblower policy and 8) had its appeal to end lawsuits by Nigerian families who accuse it of illegal trials of the antibiotic Trovan in which 11 children died, rejected by the Supreme Court. And how was your week?

Nor does Pfizer back down when faced with legal troubles. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/147467/pfizer%3A_the_drug_giant_that_makes_bank_from_drugs_that_can_kill_you/

[KoKo]

1. Not only Pfizer but MERK who has killed people and gotten

away with it by beating the law suits with just some compensation here and there.

[zabet]

2. The laws are in favor of the corporation.

When corporations were granted the legal status of 'personhood', the legal rights of the actual people against the corporation went down the crapper. Take for example workers' comp cases. You cannot sue for punitive damages, only for lost wages. Doesn't matter how bad the injury or whether the company was grossly negligent, doesn't even matter if they broke all kinds of OSHA and EPA laws, all you can get is lost wages. Nothing for loss of lifestyle, nothing for loss of health and well-being (they lay that on SSDI), and nothing for what they put your loved ones through.

[stray cat]

3. Drugs have side effects and it is a cost benefit ratio.

but many people will die without the pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical companies are the reason we have any drugs to postpone death from AIDS, pain medications and anasthesias, treatment to prevent more damage from heart attacks and strokes. Some mediations save lives or quality of life.

[tech9413]

4. I beg to disagree, pharma developes "lifestyle" drugs and

their research budget is less than 3% of their profits. Most useful drugs are developed at the expense of the NIH on our nickle. I've worked in and around the health care and pharma industries for about 30 years. There is very little invested in cures because there's much more money to be made by "treating" the problem.