DONATIONS TIE DRUG MAKERS TO NONPROFIT CONSUMER HEALTH GROUPS

[Guest guest]

Jerome Kassirer, a Tufts University and Yale University medical school

professor is the author of On the Take: How Medicine's Complicity With Big

Business Can Endanger Your Health.

 

A few of the major points:

 

" The ADA [American Diabetes Assoc.], which received 5 percent to 10 percent

of its revenue last year from drug companies, reported little initially in

2004 about suspected diabetes risks from antidepressants. "

 

The longer drug companies can stall in allowing such information to reach

the public, the fewer lawsuits they will face because the statue of

limitations

- the time period in which a suit can be filed for damages - runs out in

generally a short two years. This link between antidepressants and the huge

increase in diabetes is something I have shouted very loudly about for over

a

decade and a half. The damage to the pancreas by this group of drugs was my

first concern. And as I point out in my book I feel it is ABSOLUTELY NO

COINCIDENCE that the company who introduced the first SSRI to the US, Eli

Lilly

(Prozac), is also the biggest manufacturer of diabetic products. If you can

promote

a new group of drugs that can take the diabetic rate and jump it to an

astronomical number you make more profits on the other end as well, don't

you?

 

Also interesting to point out is this:

 

" The ADHD group [CHADD], while calling itself a science-based information

clearinghouse, has not published some critical information about ADHD

drugs,

including an FDA warning last September about suicide risk from Strattera,

made

by one of its biggest donors, Lilly. . . . "

 

Why would CHADD, a supposed consumer support group, fail to issue such a

serious, life-threatening warning on this deadly SSRI being marketed as an

ADHD

drug? Money does buy anything in America, doesn't it? And if this move by

CHADD does not make that clear, take a look at what the drug pushing

" consumer "

group, NAMI, has been up to lately:

 

" NAMI, for example, urges and helps states and localities to create special

one-on-one " assertive " treatment programs, which include making patients

take

their medicine. . . .

 

" NAMI, did not disclose that Lilly marketing manager Gerald

Radke briefly ran its entire operation. Radke began in 1999 as a Lilly-paid

" management consultant, " then left Lilly and served as NAMI's paid " interim

 

executive director " until mid-2001. The group acknowledged this only after

being

shown Radke's resume listing the job. . . .

 

" Radke, of Harrisburg, declined to comment. After NAMI, he ran the

Pennsylvania Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, and now serves in

the state

Health Department. "

 

I have some close friends whose 3 children were diagnosed with Gaucher's

disease several years ago. After learning a little more about the disease

and

its treatment I voiced my concern about the invasiveness of that treatment

and

urged them to look for natural alternatives first. But the God of Medicine

prevailed once again and they decided to stick with the extremely expensive

and

most invasive treatment.

 

And now I learn in this article that the most glaring connection of all of

these groups is the National Gaucher Foundation's financial ties - 91% of

its

revenue comes from the manufacturer of one of the drugs used to treat the

disease. So, is this just a racket my friend's children have been caught up

in?

If I were a consumer, I would definitely feel violated!

 

These ties are something all consumers need to be made aware of in order to

make informed choices in their health care. This is a public safety issue.

 

Ann Blake Tracy, Ph.D.,

Executive Director, International Coalition For Drug Awareness

Website: _www.drugawareness.org_ (http://www.drugawareness.org/)

Author: Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? - Our Serotonin Nightmare

& CD or audio tape on safe withdrawal: " Help! I Can't Get

Off My Antidepressant! " (800-280-0730)