A Threat to Big Pharma

Dangerous Spin Doctors #4
Mark Hyman November 29

A Threat to Big Pharma: Comparative Effectiveness Research

A new model of research may help us sort out this messy collusion between science, government, and Big Pharma. Comparative effectiveness research takes existing treatments and compares them to determine which are the most effective. Unfortunately, fear mongering and lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry for “rationed care” convinced the Senate to leave a critical provision for funding comparative effectiveness research on the cutting room floor. Apparently, independent comparisons of medical therapies, including a comparison of new expensive drugs to older, proven, cheaper drugs was considered bad for business.

This is all the more tragic given recent findings using this model of research. A large independent comparative effectiveness study conducted in July 2010 found older high blood pressure drugs such as water pills or diuretics to be more effective in reducing heart attacks and strokes at dramatically lower cost than “new and improved” blood pressure medication.(vii) Comparing pharmaceutical treatments to lifestyle or integrated approaches to health is even more dangerous, lest we find that lifestyle treatment for heart disease and diabetes which costs our health care system $750 billion a year works better and cost less than drugs and surgery and has good side effects such as improved quality of life. Unfortunately, in our health care system, business trumps science every time.

Such confusion is not accidental but intentional. The more confusion about medication, the more Big Pharma sells. Propagating doubt is big business. These are the same kinds of techniques Big Tobacco used to great profit claiming that scientific links between smoking and cancer were “not proven.”

Take the recent Avandia debacle. For 10 years Glaxo Smith Kline, based on their internal research, knew their blockbuster diabetes drug increased the risk of heart disease. But they hid the data. Even though it was legally required, they did not submit the data to the FDA or post it on their website. After legal action forced them to publish the data on a public website, independent scientists analyzed the data, showed it to be harmful, and reported their findings. Despite this the drug became the biggest selling diabetes drug with sales of over $3 billion a year through corporate lobbying at the FDA, medical deception, and intense pharmaceutical marketing.

From 1999 to 2009, it is estimated there were over 47,000 unnecessary deaths from Avandia. 600,000 American still take it today. Glaxo Smith Kline was fined a few billion dollars for their deception—a fraction of their profit from the drug—and a small penalty to pay for the mass murder of almost 50,000 people. The Europeans have removed it from the market, but the FDA avoided clear action until this month. However, rather than take the drug off the market, which would have been the responsible thing to do, it is still allowed for limited indications and patients still on it may continue using it (if they haven’t had a heart attack yet and know the risks).(viii) Would you want to take it? Would you want your mother or father to take it?

Hiding evidence is only one tactic Pharma uses to illegally promote and profit from medication.

Another is illegal marketing practices.

Yet another Big Pharma company, Novartis was fined $422.5 million this week for criminal activities. They were illegally marketing their drugs to doctors. Drugs can only be marketed for the conditions for which they were approved. If a medication, such as Trileptal (one of six illegally marketed Novaritis drugs) is approved for seizures, it cannot be marketed for chronic pain. This is exactly what Novaritis and others do.

This is not an oversight, a mistake or unintentional criminal activity on the part of drug companies, but a deliberate and focused strategy that feeds profits. Perhaps, they think of these criminal “fines” as part of their marketing budget. Novaritis earned nearly $10 billion per year for the drugs it marketed illegally. The $422.5 million fine is a small “marketing expense,” a slap on the wrist. They should be fined the entire amount they earned from the illegal marketing of those drugs. Or better yet, the company executives that approve these policies should serve jail time. If an individual knowingly harms or kills another human being, they are convicted and serve time. Pharma just pays a “fee” that is insignificant in the face of their total profits.

Novartis is not alone. They are in good company. Here’s how much the top Big Pharma companies were fined for the exact same illegal practices for which most pleaded guilty.

• Pfizer: $2.3 billion
• Eli Lilly: $1.4 billion
• Allergan: $600 million
• AstraZeneca: $520 million
• Bristol Myers Squibb:$ 515 million
• Forest Laboratories: $313 million

http://www.drfranklipman.com/dangerous-spin-doctors-7-steps-to-protect-yourself-from-deception-in-medical-research/