...Continued

To quote Democratic congressman Sherrod Brown:

“The PhRMA doesn’t need to lobby. The industry is in the While House already.”

Drug giants not only specialize in influencing government officials, but they also have the ordinary physician in their grips.

The practice by drug companies of lavishing gifts upon doctors—far beyond pens and mugs—including exclusive vacations, “consulting” agreements that involve little work and other freebies—is gaining increased scrutiny and disapproval in the public’s eye.

Even more quietly, another practice is growing in popularity.

This devious ploy involves private-practice physicians setting up tax-exempt charities, which then receive major donations—to the tune of millions of dollars a year—from drug companies and medical device makers. The “charities” then typically conduct medical research or education, which the physicians behind them promote as being legitimate.

Increasingly, Big Pharma spends billions to influence what doctors see, read and hear, often persuading them to prescribe more drugs, just as it spends billions to taint researchers’ decision-making process.

A national survey of physicians published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, well-known and often quoted, found that 94 percent of physicians have a “relationship” with the pharmaceutical, medical device, or other related industries.

This massive conflict of interest has prompted Senators Chuck Grassley and Herb Kohl to introduce a bill called the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which would require physicians to report annually to the government all payments over $100, beginning in 2010, and that information would be made available to the public.

What’s the Cost of Pushing Pills These Days?

Exactly how much does the pharmaceutical industry spend to push its products?

A study in 2008[iv] endeavored to measure those costs, and the results are staggering.

They calculated that Big Pharma spends almost twice as much on promotion as they spend on research and development:

1.The industry spent $57.5 billion on marketing and promotion in 2004. (This estimate far exceeds the $20 billion estimated by the research firm called Integrated Medical Systems (IMS), which is most often quoted.)

2.The amount spent on research and development pales in comparison, at $31.5 billion.

Add to that what the industry spends in lobbying, and it adds up to a mind-numbing figure.

These numbers clearly demonstrate the need for redirecting the priorities of the industry toward more research and less marketing, besides the need for quashing the greed and corruption that run so rampant within it.

“Trust Allah, But Tie Up Your Camel”

Until the umbilical cord between Big Pharma and the government is cut, healthcare/health policy reform will remain a dream. Until then, take what your government and your physician tell you with a grain of salt.

Trust but verify.

Remain proactive, educating yourself on these issues rather than simply believing the press releases that are reiterated a hundred times on every cable channel.

With respect to the swine flu, I recommend spending a little time reviewing the vast supply of information available on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) site, if you haven’t already done so.





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“World Health Organization “manufactured” the global swine flu scare—suspected of corruption” November 26, 2009, Infowars Ireland
http://info-wars.org/...


[ii] McElhatton J. “Obama nominee omitted ties to biotch” The Washington Times, September 8, 2009 http://www.washington...

[iii] Vogel K. P. (August 19, 2009) “David Azelrod’s ties targeted in health fight” Politico http://www.politico.c...

[iv] Gagnon M.A., Lexchin J. (2008) “The cost of pushing pills: A new estimate of pharmaceutical promotion expenditures in the United States.” PLoS Med 5(1) http://www.plosmedici...




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