Merck now under criminal investigation by the Justice Department for Vioxx scand

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Merck now under criminal investigation by the Justice Department for

Vioxx scandal

 

Pharmaceutical giant Merck is now under scrutiny by the Justice

Department, which has begun a criminal investigation into the firm's

marketing of the painkiller Vioxx (withdrawn from the market on

September 30, 2004). Since that time, the Vioxx scandal has expanded

thanks in part to the publication of internal Merck e-mails by the

Wall Street Journal. These e-mails showed that Merck was apparently

aware of the dangers of Vioxx several years ago and yet attempted to

construct clinical studies to obscure those dangers in an effort to

continue marketing these drugs to the general public.

 

It's becoming clear now that some people at Merck were aware of the

dangers of this drug, and yet they continued to push the drug anyway.

Vioxx was marketed as a safe drug and was ultimately taken by as many

as 20 million Americans before finally being recalled.

 

I have called for a criminal investigation of Merck and key FDA

decision makers because these actions are, in my opinion, worse than

white-collar crimes like those committed by Enron executives. These

crimes by pharmaceutical companies and FDA regulators result in the

death and injury of American citizens. Hopefully the Justice

Department will send a strong message with the criminal indictment of

Merck executives and FDA decision makers who were involved in what

increasingly appears to be a conspiracy to conceal the negative side

effects of Vioxx while the drug was heavily promoted and sold.

 

In a report filed by FDA researcher David Graham on November 2nd, it

was revealed that Vioxx may have contributed to almost 28,000 heart

attacks and deaths over the past five years. In response to all of

this, the FDA has humorously announced that it's going to investigate

itself and find out if it did anything wrong. It also said it will

stop censoring its own scientists.

 

These statements, coming from an agency that seems sworn to protect

the profits of the pharmaceutical industry, seem laughable. No one who

is familiar with the facts surrounding this case and the ongoing

behavior of the FDA is going to be fooled by such promises. What this

is showing is the grand failure of the FDA and the whole system of

drug approval and post-approval safety. It's showing that we as a

nation are literally killing our own citizens with toxic chemicals

that are approved by a corrupt agency that approves drugs based on

distorted clinical trials and the suppression of negative evidence or

information, including suppressing the free speech of scientists,

researchers and outspoken physicians who are trying to warn people

about the dangers of these drugs.

 

For many years, I have described this system as a drug racket and

until recently I had received quite a bit of negative feedback about

calling it that. But now, suddenly, it's quite clear to nearly

everyone that we are witnessing a racket. This is being operated

almost exactly like a criminal organization for which laws like the

RICO Act were originally designed. This is a modern version of Al

Capone, except instead of carrying pistols, his gang is carrying

prescription drugs and rubber stamps that say " FDA approved. "

 

Clearly, it is time to dismantle the FDA and reform it from the ground

up. The FDA needs to be a regulatory body that actually regulates

industries rather than promoting their financial interests. This

should be common sense, but it has been long forgotten in the United

States during the rush for corporate greed and shareholder profits.

 

But people like New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have not

forgotten these principles. And it is in fact Mr. Spitzer who is

partly involved in the investigations against Merck. This is a man not

to be taken lightly. He is, in my opinion, a true hero of law

enforcement and he may yet take on Merck and other pharmaceutical

giants to prove that even corporate kings cannot exploit the U.S.

public for financial gain and get away with it for very long.

 

What I would like to see from all of this is justice served. There

needs to be justice for the criminal actions committed by drug

companies and the FDA. There needs to be justice for the potentially

tens of thousands of people who were harmed or killed by the marketing

of a drug that Merck knew was dangerous. There needs to be justice

that questions the corporate philosophy that profits must be generated

at all costs, no matter who is harmed in the process. For too long in

the pharmaceutical industry, there has been an emphasis on making

money regardless of the consequences. It's the Enron mentality, but

now we're playing with lives, not just retirement funds.

 

It has all gone on far too long and it goes far beyond just Merck.

There are literally dozens of pharmaceutical companies that are, right

now, engaged in similar behavior. They are heavily promoting toxic

drugs. They are burying negative evidence. They are distorting and

exaggerating the benefits of these drugs. They are altering the

results of clinical trials. They're ghostwriting scientific papers

that are published in the names of other physicians. They are refusing

to disclose the financial relationship between their own companies and

the authors or physicians or industry groups that promote the

interests of pharmaceutical companies. And the list goes on.

 

We've just learned, in fact, that Eli Lilly was apparently aware that

its Prozac drug caused violent behavior and suicides thanks to

shocking documents revealed in the British Medical Journal that have

-- get this -- been missing for ten years. These documents, of course,

have been buried for a decade.

 

This kind of corruption is so deeply rooted in American culture and

throughout the conventional medical industry that the unraveling of it

is going to take some time. But it will be time well spent, because in

the end, we may have a system of medicine in this country that

actually focuses on disease prevention. A system of medicine that

teaches nutrition (see related ebook on nutrition) to doctors, that

puts responsibility of health on patients and doesn't promise miracle

cures in the shape of overly-priced pharmaceutical that, by the way,

just might kill you even if used as directed.

 

And if you think about it, the drug industry in the United States has

killed far more Americans than any terrorists group or all the murders

and industrial accidents combined. The pharmaceutical industry is the

third leading cause of death in this country, and that's according to

the Journal of the American Medical Association. First there's cancer,

second there's heart disease and third pharmaceuticals.

 

This is an industry that causes more pain, suffering and fatalities

than any other industry in the country or in the world. It dwarfs the

destruction caused by Big Tobacco. It is, indeed, Big Pharma, and it

represents the very worst evils of society: corporate greed combined

with bad medicine. And starting right now, the Justice Department and

heroic defenders of the public good like Eliot Spitzer, Sidney Wolfe

and Dr. David Graham now stand a chance to bring this evil empire to

its knees. And should we be lucky enough as citizens of this society,

someday we shall be free of this scourge of companies we now call " Big

Pharma. "

 

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About the Author:

Author Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with over 4,000 hours of

study on nutrition, wellness, food toxicology and the true causes of

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therapies for weight loss and disease prevention / reversal. View

Adams' health statistics showing LDL cholesterol of 67 and outstanding

blood chemistry. Adams uses no prescription drugs whatsoever and

relies exclusively on natural health, nutrition and exercise to

achieve optimum health. Adams' books include the Seven Laws of

Nutrition, The Five Soft Drink Monsters and Superfoods For Optimum

Health. In his spare time, Adams engages in pilates, cycling, strength

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