Shocking Facts About the Pharmaceutical Industry

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Shocking Facts About the Pharmaceutical Industry

 

 

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Big drug companies have been accused of putting profits above patients, spinning

false PR campaigns and more. Here are some of the most shocking facts about the

pharmaceutical industry.

The price of drugs is increasing faster than anything else a patient pays for:

The prices of the most heavily prescribed drugs are routinely jacked up,

sometimes several times a year. Some medications have a mark-up of 1,000 percent

over the cost of their ingredients.

Your doctor may have an ulterior motive behind your prescription: Drug reps

often give gifts to convince doctors to prescribe the medications that they

represent. These drug reps usually have no medical or science education.

Pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than research: Almost twice as

much!

Guilty of Medicare fraud: Pharmaceutical companies are being tried in federal

courts as a result of their exploitation of Medicare. AstraZeneca had to pay

more than $340 million in penalties for coaching doctors to cheat Medicare.

The combined wealth of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies outweigh GNP of

sub-Saharan Africa: In fact, the combined worth of the world's top five drug

companies is twice the combined GNP of that entire region.

Americans pay more for prescription meds than anyone else in the world: $200

billion in 2002 alone.

" New " Drugs aren't really new: Two-thirds of " new " prescription drugs are

identical to existing drugs or modified versions of them.

Drug companies are taking advantage of underdeveloped countries to perform

clinical trials: In developing countries, government oversight is more lax.

For more shocking facts, click the link below.

Sources:

* Nursing Online Education Database March 27, 2008

 

 

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

According to Corporate Watch, Fortune magazine has declared the world's biggest

drug company, Pfizer the " fifth-best wealth-creator " in America.  

The question is: who benefits from this " creation of wealth " ? It's certainly not

the Americans who pay a thousand percent markup for the drugs Pfizer pumps out. 

Americans pay far more for their drugs than any other nation. Take this, for

example: according to PricewaterhouseCoopers fascinating report, Pharma 2020:

The Vision, India spends $420 per diabetic patient per year. The U.S., in

comparison, spends an average of $10,844 per year per patient.Their report also

states:

" The current pharmaceutical industry business model is both economically

unsustainable and operationally incapable of acting quickly enough to produce

the types of innovative treatments demanded by global markets. In order to make

the most of these future growth opportunities, the industry must fundamentally

change the way it operates.

Some of the major changes PwC anticipates for the industry are:

* Health care will shift in focus from treatment to prevention.

* Pharmaceutical companies will provide total health care packages.

* The current linear phase research & development process will give way to

in-life testing and live licensing, in collaboration with regulators and health

care providers.

* The traditional blockbuster sales model will disappear.

* The supply chain function will become revenue generating as it becomes

integral to the health care package and enables access to new channels.

* More sophisticated direct-to-consumer distribution channels will diminish the

role of wholesalers.

Now, some of this has an encouraging ring to it, such as shifting the focus from

treatment to prevention. Other " predictions " are far more menacing, including

the development of more sophisticated direct-to-consumer distribution channels

for drugs.  

People are Waking Up to the Truth About Health

Fortunately, more people are waking up to the illusion and deception of the drug

industry as a whole, and starting to clearly see the truth. Last year's

PricewaterhouseCoopers' report cited a declining trust in the reputation of the

mega-pharmaceuticals.

The main reason is because the public is absolutely right in their estimation

that drug companies manipulate or suppressnegative clinical trials, promote

their toxic products for unapproved uses, and focus on developing drugs that are

no betterthan older ones.

This is yet another indication that my visionto reconfigure and reform the

deadly state of conventional health care in America is getting closer to

becoming a reality. So keep up the good work folks. But please be aware, the

battle has merely begun… Each of the 25 facts listed in the article above

constitutes a problem within the system that needs to be changed or abolished.

Physicians must also, en masse, come to the realization that what they are doing

is going nowhere. This may be one of the most difficult areas to change, as the

pharmaceutical industry has devised a highly effective system of indoctrination

and very specific psychological techniques to bamboozle physicians. Doctors

usually believe they are immune to persuasion tactics, and drug reps know just

how important it is to maintain that illusion – which is why it works so well. 

Consider for a moment the in-depth report published in both The New England

Journal of Medicine and PLoS Medicine, which admitted that pharmaceutical sales

reps are trained in tactics that are on par with some of the most potent

brainwashing techniques used throughout the world!

The idea that reps provide some kind of valuable, informative service to

physicians is total fiction, created and perpetuated by the drug industry, to

keep this deadly, but profitable,scheme going.

Poison For Profit

Another shocking fact that few consider is that virtually every major

pharmaceutical company has a corresponding branch that creates the toxins and

poisons that contribute to the chronic diseases their drugs and medical devices

treat.

So these huge transnational companies profitnot only from the sale of products

such as pesticides, herbicides and GM crops, but also from the symptoms and

chronic illnesses that they can trigger.

The vast majority of chemicals found in pesticides and other products undergo

little or no testing for chronic, low level exposures and for chronic health

effects, effectively creating a circle of destruction and double profits.

Below is a list of such chem/pharm companies:

Chemical Division Pharmaceutical Division

Aventis (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, GM food) Aventis Pharma

Monsanto (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, GM food) Pharmacia

BASF (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides) BASF Pharmaceuticals

Merck Research Company (precursors for pesticides and neurotoxins) Merck

Dow Chemical (industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals) Dow Pharmaceuticals

Make no mistake about it. The drug companies are incredibly powerful, and

overcoming their influence over your life will take a mammoth effort.

But there are concrete steps you can take to combat the drug companies'

self-interest, save yourself loads of money, and improve your health so you can

avoid unnecessary drugs in the first place.

Ten Steps to Reduce Your Pharmaceutical Expenses Now

Take charge of your own health now instead of handing it over to the drug

companies.

How do you do that?

You can start by using the Internet to locate non-drug alternatives to your

health challenges. Many start with my site as it has more than 150,000 pages to

help you understand more about how you can improve your health without drugs or

surgery, through simple lifestyle modifications.

These are the basic tenets of optimal health that have always remained permanent

truths, regardless of what marvels modern science comes up with next:

1. Eat a healthy diet that's right for your nutritional type(paying very

careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down)

2. Drink plenty of clean water

3. Manage your stress

4. Exercise

5. Get plenty of appropriate sun exposure

6. Limit toxin exposure

7. Consume healthy fat

8. Eat plenty of raw food

9. Optimize insulinand leptinlevels

10. Get plenty of sleep

If you want to further understand how corporations and government manipulate

science and the media by preying upon the public trust -- and how to protect

yourself -- I highly recommend the book " Trust Us, We're Experts. "

One of the primary purposesof Mercola.com is to provide you with the insight to

protect and defend yourself from these major corporate interests (as well as the

government they've purchased). I've committed myself to providing you with

practical and straightforward advice and suggestions on how to optimize your

body to prevent disease, reach your optimal weight, and live longer.

 

Related Articles:

 

 

 Drug Company Accountability

 

 Psychological Warfare Techniques -- Used on Your Doctor

 

 Sound the Alarm -- Stop the Dangerous, Drug-Promoting " Mothers Act "

 

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