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Medical Research
Medical Research is expensive. But when the “return on the investment” is many, many multiples of the original investment, then it comes across as entirely worthwhile. From the viewpoint of the Pharmaceutical Companies, funding for medical research really pays! But it does so in a curious way. Instead of the idea that more medical research will result in new and improved drugs, the real purpose of the pharmaceutical companies funding universities and medical research establishments is to include in the funding agreements non-disclosure and/or controlled disclosure (controlled by the pharmaceutical companies), such that negative research findings can be kept from the public view. Well Being Journal, <www.wellbeingjournal.com>, has compiled a noteworthy report on this problem, which follows below. Also weighing in with additional understanding is a report by Jeff Donn of the Associated Press <http://www.nandotimes.com>, who has reported on an important article in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN Medical Research & Pharmaceuticals: For Health or Bank Accounts? In September 2001, the world’s top medical journals established a new policy designed to give medical researchers what the public thought they already had: the right to publish the findings of their studies. In fact, most medical research is funded, at least in part, by companies that stand to benefit from the results, and, to that effect, the companies require researchers to sign agreements stating that they will not publish any data without say so from corporate head office. [This eliminates any hint of “independent studies”.] In 1999, Eli Lilly, the maker of Prozac, received the results of one such study, which looked at the drug Olanzapine, the best selling antipsychotic drug in the U.S. Eli Lilly had hoped to show that their drug was useful for Parkinson’s patients. When the result came back negative, they did not alert doctors of this discovery. Rather, they put the data in a vault. The consequence, according to Joseph Friedman, a professor at Brown University Medical School, is that “the drug continues to be used inappropriately, harming unknown numbers of patients.” (Providence Journal, March 9, 2001.) Drug companies provide huge sums to universities... and researchers know that negative results will put them at the end of the money train. As such, the move by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors to give greater rights to researchers seems more akin to PR than radical change. As long as research is funded by drug companies, such policies mean that more pressure will be placed on making sure the results are positive. David Healy, a research psychiatrist in North Wales, found that a certain antidepressant can increase suicidal and homicidal behavior in some users. When he reported this in a talk at the University of Toronto, the university retracted its job offer to him. Not surprisingly, the university receives millions of dollars in funding from, you guessed it, Eli Lilly. (Richard Degrandpre, in Adbusters: Journal of the Mental Environment, November/December, 2001, 1243 West 7th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6H 1B7, Canada, 604-736-9401, www.adbusters.org.) NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN In May of 2000, the editor of one of the world’s premier medical journals wrote a critique of the medical research system, noting that science was being compromised by a growing influence of industry money. Jeff Donn, reporting for the Associated Press, noted that Dr. Marcia Angell, editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, has joined a wave of critics, who charged research funding from drug and medical-equipment manufacturers had added serious concerns of credibility of the scientific process. “When the boundaries between industry and academic medicine become as blurred as they are now, the business goals of industry influence the mission of medical schools in multiple ways,” she said. Dr. Angell also noted -- as the journal’s outgoing editor -- that while rising research funding from biotechnology and drug companies has helped lead to some dramatic advances against many diseases, medical schools had struck a “Faustian bargain” with industry. She claimed that industry representatives were lavishing giveaway products and trips on doctors. Speaking and consulting fees, along with other compensation, was subtly -- are not so subtly -- swaying [or outright forcing] researchers toward favorable findings on products of companies making the payments. Michael Werner, a lawyer for the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organization, said the “disclosures of financial ties and government regulation sufficiently protect the public. He said companies have every reason to shun poor research because of liability.” The truth, however, is that the research is slanted for quick profits, and the liability costs are often built into the price tag. One example is Vaccines which might cost as little as 11 cents per dose being priced at 11 dollars per dose -- the latter including obscene profits and liability contingency set asides. NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN $$$$$ NNNNN “Just Say No to Drugs” (But be sure to take your Ritalin before school.) Society says, “Drugs are bad for you, drugs will kill you; don’t drink this, it will kill you; don’t smoke, it will kill you; don’t take cocaine; don’t take LSD; don’t take hash and pot; don’t snort coke; don’t take crack and heroin, this will kill you. But do take antihistamines, do take aspirin and acetaminophen, do take all the pharmaceutical drugs that we can come up with! These are all good for you! Rather hypocritical, don’t you think? You have drug addiction centers where individuals can get detoxed, some from crack, heroin and cocaine, and others from pharmaceutical pills. It’s okay to take a Valium, or two or three. If you’re feeling really bad, take four or five, not a problem. Drink a little drink afterward, not a big deal. But when you get to the point where you can’t handle it anymore, you come to us and we’ll put you into a detox center and get you all better so you can go back out and do it again. And we call this health. Take a look at your health system -- in Canada alone, last year, over two billion dollars was spent on prescription drugs. [In the U.S. it is enormously more.] We assure you that the Mafia would love to get a piece of that. But the government isn’t smart enough to say to the Mafia, “Let’s take a piece of you instead. Let’s legalize cocaine. Let’s legalize heroin.” Why? Because heroin and cocaine are seen as bad drugs, but Valium is seen as a good drug. And never mind Valium, let’s take AZT, let’s take a number of other drugs and drug cocktails. Let’s take chemotherapy -- a little dioxin, digoxin and a little Agent Orange and stick it into your veins! Take a look at the pharmaceutical basis of the drugs used for chemotherapy! We assure you [these drugs] are based on insecticides, pesticides and fungicides. Same basis. Slightly different chemical compound, but the same basis. So you stick a little Agent Orange up your arm -- hey, no problems. It stops the cancer in your body. Of course, it ruins your immune system, it ruins your body’s ability to replicate itself, its ability to heal itself. But, what the heck, at least you don’t have cancer. “Look at us, we did a good job, didn’t we? Got rid of your cancer. Now, you can go, you can leave here. When you walk out the door and when your bones break because you have no more calcium in your body, it’s not our fault. We cured you of cancer, you didn’t come to us about the broken bones, you came to us for the cancer.” And this is what your doctors do. This is what your health-care system does. Your health-care system and your politicians have been convinced by the chemical companies that theirs is the only way to heal. Your doctors have been convinced of this too, go take a look at your medical schools, where they teach doctors. One doctor teaches the next doctor, who teaches the next doctor the same thing, over and over and over again. “Take a pill, send him home. If you haven’t got a pill, then you can’t cure them. If you can’t cure them, then you’re not doing your job. You’re not a doctor, you might as well quit.” You[‘re] giving away your empowerment. You convince yourselves that doctors, the medical profession, the pharmaceutical companies and your government have your best interest at heart. They know better, they’ll take care of you. They are the ones who will help you survive! [The pharmaceutical companies] make drugs because they make money. They make money because people have invested in the company, and those people who invested in the company want a return on their money. By the way, who are the people who invested in the company? It’s you. [The people.] You take your money, you put it into the company and you say, “I’m giving you $100 and I want $120 back.” The company says, “To get you $120 back, we’ve got to go out and sell this many drugs.” So, what do they do? They convince other people to buy the drugs. How do they do that? They do it through advertising. They do it through manipulation. They do it through coercion. They convince the doctors, the doctors convince the health-care officials, the [legislators], the [state] governments, and everybody sits there and happily says, “Look at me, I’m making money.” Of course, when the system collapses [and it will soon] then everybody will be screaming, not that people are dying [but that it’s] costing too much, not enough return on the money. We assure you that this particular scenario will simply continue until you choose to stop it. And the only way to stop it is to say, “No more.” Health and Responsibility Drug Enforcers Medical Organizations Multinational Drug Dealing Or forward to: Faith in Medical Doctors Inexpensive Remedies Health Tips On the Other Hand Mental Health
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The Library of ialexandriah
2003© Copyright Dan Sewell Ward, All Rights Reserved
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