The Avalanche of Pharmaceutical Lawsuits

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The Avalanche of Pharmaceutical Lawsuits

 

http://www.mercola.com/2006/sep/5/the_avalanche_of_pharmaceutical_lawsuits.htm

 

More than 6,000 lawsuits have been filed in recent years against four drugs:

the hormone-replacement Prempro, the birth-control patch Ortho Evra, the

anti-psychotic Seroquel and the anti-seizure drug Neurontin.

 

Plaintiffs claim that the manufacturers either failed to disclose the drugs'

risks or failed to properly test them in the first place.

 

Cancer, Diabetes, Suicide

 

Prempro may cause a higher risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart disease.

Neurontin could increase suicide risk. Ortho Evra birth-control patch may cause

blood clots due to inadequate safety testing, and Seroquel might result in

diabetes or high blood glucose.

 

65,000 Lawsuits

 

The adverse effects of many other drugs are also causing lawsuits. Over the

past six years, more than 65,000 product liability lawsuits have been filed

against drugmakers, more than any other industry. And the lawsuits are likely to

continue increasing, given the number of drugs on the market and the number of

consumers taking them.

 

Likely to Continue

 

The lawsuits, however, will do little to stop companies from releasing

similar drugs with large market value. Seroquel had 2005 sales of $2.8 billion,

and

both Neurontin and Prempro had sales of greater than $2 billion.

 

USA Today August 23, 2006

 

 

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Dr. Mercola's Comment:

 

Neurontin

 

http://www.mercola.com/blog/2006/aug/16/stealth_drug_company_practices_market_il\

legal_off-label_uses , Seroquel

http://www.mercola.com/blog/2006/may/2/this_ought_to_be_a_crime , Ortho Evra,

Prempro

http://www.mercola.com/2003/jun/11/hormone_replacement.htm , Premarin

http://www.mercola.com/2005/jan/26/hrt_strokes.htm , Vioxx

http://www.mercola.com/blog/2006/aug/21/court_losses_piling_up_for_merck ...

the list of drugs with deadly side effects seems never-ending.

 

On the bright side, the 65,000 product liability lawsuits filed by consumers

against these drug companies may be a sign the mind control power that they

have been able to exert is in transition. In 2005 alone, some 17,000 lawsuits

were filed against the multi-national drug companies, even more than the next

five industries combined.

 

Most physicians are well intentioned and sincerely seek to help you with your

health challenges. The problem is that they are all powerfully, and most

unknowingly, manipulated by the drug industry that spends, on average, more than

$10,000 every year to market to each and every physician in the United States,

for a grand total of $16 billion.

 

The primary tool most physicians will use is one based on the drug and

surgical model. While that clearly works very well for many acute emergencies,

those

problems are in the extreme minority of problems.

 

As a result using this system for chronic health conditions causes about one

out of every three American deaths

http://www.mercola.com/display/router.aspx?docid=30236 . The reason you have

not seen this advertised in the media is a

clever deception based on the way deaths are categorized.

 

If you were one of the hundreds of thousands of people who died every year

from a drug reaction or had taken Vioxx and had a fatal heart attack, your death

would not be classified as a drug reaction but rather according to what organ

system failed.

 

Amazing but true.

 

If somehow Tylenol become tampered with and 10 million Americans died from a

heart attack from taking Tylenol, you would see that reflected in an epidemic

of " heart disease. " The deaths would be classified not as a drug side effect,

but as a heart attack.

 

Almost 800,000 Americans die needlessly every year as a result of

conventional medicine mistakes. That's about 650,000 more people than die in

America each

year from accidents.

 

That's over 200,000 more people than die from cancer. That's 770,000 more

people than die from AIDS. That's 200,000 more people than die from coronary

heart disease. That's well over 600,000 more people than die from strokes.

 

That means that the American medical system is the leading cause of death in

America today.

 

Using drugs to treat illness and unnecessary medical and surgical procedures

is the driving force behind all of this. It's not hard to understand why; the

industries that make the drugs and medical technologies wish to continue to

sell them.

 

If medicine instead focused on proper diet, regular exercise, and other

sensible and free lifestyle changes, vast numbers of Americans would no longer

need

or want to purchase the drugs the pharmaceutical industry desperately wishes

to continue to sell.

 

The beginning of the end is at hand. I have been working on a new Web site

that incorporates the latest in Web 2.0 technology and we are currently beta

testing it with a handful of doctors. It should be released this fall and you

will finally be able to actively participate, voice your views and add your

wisdom to the site.

 

This will be an amazing resource that will provide a treasure trove of

knowledge to help you sort through the jungle of information out there and

finally

begin to see the real picture.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Related Articles:

 

Why Death Rates Decrease When Doctors Go On Strike

http://www.mercola.com/2004/may/26/doctors_death.htm

 

Death by Medicine

http://www.mercola.com/display/router.aspx?docid=30236

 

Doctors are Third Leading Cause of Death

http://www.mercola.com/2000/jul/30/doctors_death.htm