Big Pharma

Big Pharma Corp Trying To Keep Pot Illegal Approved To Manufacture Synthetic Marijuana

March 6, 2018 Ruth Milka, Nationofchange.org Educate! Big Pharma, Legalization, Marijuana

“It appears they are trying to kill a non-pharmaceutical market for marijuana in order to line their own pockets.” Insys Therapeutics, a major pharmaceutical company, has spent over $500,000 fueling the opposition to marijuana legalization in the United States. Now we know why. The Big Pharma company is a major manufacturer of deadly painkillers and is one of the chief backers of the anti-legalization movement. They have been in legal trouble in the last several years for “alleged improper marketing of a highly addictive prescription painkiller.” They are currently the subject of several state and federal criminal investigations, and a shareholder lawsuit, over their marketing of a product that contains the deadly opioid painkiller fentanyl. The company is curiously developing a drug to treat opioid overdose as well as fueling the addiction.

The Big Pharma Family That Brought Us Opioid Crisis

February 20, 2018 By Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org Educate! Big Pharma, Crisis, Opioids

If the devil wears Prada, what do America’s most destructive drug pushers wear? They wear smiles. The drug pushers we have in mind here have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, enough fatalities to decrease overall U.S. life expectancy at birth for the last two years running. Yet no police SWAT teams have pounded down any doors hunting these drug pushers down. These particular drug pushers have devastated millions of families across the United States. Yet some of America’s most honorable institutions, outfits ranging from Yale University to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, have spent decades lauding their philanthropic generosity and benevolence. We’re obviously not talking El Chapo or any of his drug-running buddies here. We’re talking about the mega-billionaire family behind one of America’s most profitable drug-industry empires, the privately held Purdue Pharma.

Standing Rock Sioux People Sue Opioid Industry

February 18, 2018 Staff, TelesurTV Resist! Big Pharma, Opioids, Public Health, Standing Rock

The Standing Rock Sioux people of the United States have filed a federal lawsuit against the opioid industry, alleging they created a public health crisis in their reservation by concealing the addiction risks of drugs through misleading advertising and deceptive trade practices. The Indigenous nation, located in North and South Dakota, joins other Indigenous peoples of Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas that have filed similar lawsuits accusing the opioid industry of violating federal racketeering laws, deceptive trade practices and fraudulent and negligent conduct.

Health Insurance And Pharma Block Hopes For Single-Payer Health Care

February 1, 2018 By Josh Finkelstein, Opensecrets.org Educate! Big Pharma, Health Care, Health Insurance, Single payer health care

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont hosted a town hall recently to discuss the Medicare for All Act, during which he emphasized a conflict of interest around involving the private sector in healthcare. “Right now, we have a healthcare system that is not designed to provide quality care to all people in a cost effective way,” Sanders said at the town hall. “Let us be frank, we have a healthcare system designed to make enormous profits for insurance companies and drug companies. And disease prevention is not very high on their lists.” Sanders isn’t alone in his sentiment. A number of polls last year (see here, here, and here) indicate that a growing plurality of Americans support switching to a single-payer healthcare system, including a substantial majority of Democrats.

How Much Influence Does Big Pharma Have On Your Safety?

January 19, 2018 Kate Harveston, Popular Resistance. Educate! Big Pharma, health, Health Care, Public safety

Evil pharmaceutical companies bending blue-collar workers to their whim sounds like the stuff of a sci-fi novel, but more and more it's becoming our reality. At first, it was the actions of "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli that captured the public eye. If only a small part of the Big Pharma puzzle, Shkreli is a convenient poster boy for the arrogant actions of American drug manufacturers. But things are escalating quickly. To see just how deep the cracks run, you have to look closer.

Trump’s Health Nominee Implicated In Insulin Price-Gouging Scheme

November 29, 2017 Mike Ludwig, truth-out.org Educate! Activists, Big Pharma, Profit, Trump Administration

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout - "That means that a significant number of people who already paid premiums for their health insurance then end up paying more than their insurer does for a medicine," Azar said, adding that some patients may go without medicine rather than pay high out-of-pocket costs to fill a prescription. Within months of Azar's speech, Eli Lilly and other big drug companies were hit with a barrage of lawsuits and government investigations questioning the rising price of insulin and other diabetes medications and accusing major manufacturers of price fixing. As Truthout has reported, Eli Lilly raised the price of Humalog, a fast-acting form of insulin, by 345 percent during Azar's eight-year tenure at the company. However, it was Azar's comments on rising drug prices and the plight of consumers that helped him become President Trump's latest nominee for health secretary. Azar served as deputy health secretary under the Bush administration, and the White House says his experience in both the public and private sectors makes him the perfect candidate for reining in drug prices at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Advocates say Azar's ideas for lowering drug costs could make an already confusing system even more opaque. They also warn that he engaged in the very reimbursement schemes he criticizes before leaving Eli Lilly earlier this year.

Teamsters Union Claims Big Win vs. Largest Opioid Distributor

November 23, 2017 Staff, peoplesworld.org Resist! Big Pharma, Opioids, Unions

By Staff of People's World - WASHINGTON (PAI) — In what is a big win for shareholder activism, and in particular for Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall, stockholders in the nation’s largest opioid distributor, McKesson, voted down the firm’s compensation policies and ordered the board to split the positions of chairman and CEO. The twin moves punished current boss John Hammergren for his failure to halt the company’s role in the opioid scourge. “For the first time ever, shareholders voted to hold a company accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic,” said Hall, a West Virginian whose state has been hit notably hard by the plague. “The country’s largest drug distributor cannot get away with ballooning executive pay and failures in” its president’s “oversight as Americans die every day from opioid addiction.” Hall also said the vote “should serve as a warning” to the nation’s other big drug distributors that their shareholders, too, want to hold corporate conduct accountable. McKesson is the top drug distributor in the nation, but paid particular attention to flooding West Virginia with the pharmaceuticals. With McKesson leading the way, the three largest drug distributors shipped enough hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia from 2007-12 to provide 235 pills to every West Virginian. And even after Hammergren took over with promises of oversight, a corporate whitewash ensued, state investigators later found.

Trump’s HHS Pick Worked For Groups Suing To Hide Drug Pricing

November 15, 2017 Alex Kotch and Lydia O'neal, ibtimes.com Educate! Big Pharma, Health Care, Trump Administration

By Alex Kotch and Lydia O'neal for International Business Times - Not only did Azar work at Eli Lilly for 10 years, the final five of which he was president, he was a board member of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the primary lobbying group for the biotech industry, of which Eli Lilly is a member. Azar left both positions in January to launch a biopharmaceutical and health care consulting firm, Seraphim Strategies LLC. Should he become HHS secretary, he’d be overseeing Eli Lilly and his former clients. Prior to joining Eli Lilly, Azar was deputy HHS secretary under President George W. Bush. The political strategies of Eli Lilly, BIO and another industry lobbying group, including efforts to fight drug pricing transparency and defend their patents in order to keep prices high, shed light on the pro-industry approach that Azar is likely to take as HHS director, should he be confirmed. In June, the Nevada state legislature passed a law to increase transparency in drug pricing, requiring companies to disclose information on manufacturing, marketing and advertising costs and profits for essential diabetes drugs. It also targets pharmacy benefit managers and aims to obtain information about confidential rebates. Eli Lilly is one of the biggest manufacturers of diabetes drugs and has come under intense criticism for consistently increasing the price of these drugs.

“Worse Than Big Tobacco”: How Big Pharma Fuels Opioid Epidemic

October 14, 2017 Lynn Parramore, www.ineteconomics.org Educate! Big Pharma, Health Care, Opioids, Profit

By Lynn Parramore for Institute for New Economic Thinking - Over a 40-year career, Philadelphia attorney Daniel Berger has obtained millions in settlements for investors and consumers hurt by a rogues’ gallery of corporate wrongdoers, from Exxon to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. But when it comes to what America’s prescription drug makers have done to drive one of the ghastliest addiction crises in the country’s history, he confesses amazement. “I used to think that there was nothing more reprehensible than what the tobacco industry did in suppressing what it knew about the adverse effects of an addictive and dangerous product,” says Berger. “But I was wrong. The drug makers are worse than Big Tobacco.” The U.S. prescription drug industry has opened a new frontier in public havoc, manipulating markets and deceptively marketing opioid drugs that are known to addict and even kill. It’s a national emergency that claims 90 lives per day. Berger lays much of the blame at the feet of companies that have played every dirty trick imaginable to convince doctors to overprescribe medication that can transform fresh-faced teens and mild-mannered adults into zombified junkies. So how have they gotten away with it?

Newsletter: Is Health Care A Commodity Or Right?

September 23, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter ACA, Big Pharma, health insurance industry, Healthcare, Medicare for all, National Improved Medicare for All, Single payer health care, universal healthcare

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. With just a week left before Congress' budget reconciliation process ends, the Senate is once again peddling a poorly-thought out plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). And once again, people are rising up in opposition to the plan, making it unpopular and unlikely to pass. At the same time, support for a National Improved Medicare for All single payer healthcare system is increasing and there are bills in both the House and Senate with record numbers of co-sponsors. Will the United States finally join the long list of countries that provide healthcare to everyone? Overall, it is a time to be optimistic.

Opiod Crisis Demands Care Not Criminalization

September 11, 2017 Ellie Hamrick et al, www.socialistworker.org Resist! Big Pharma, Criminalization, Drugs

By Ellie Hamrick, Katherine King and Neil Hamrick for Socialist Worker - After Tori was arrested on drug charges in 2015, she began suffering from heroin withdrawal in jail. She was denied medical treatment, and her cellmate was threatened with punishment for attempting CPR when Tori collapsed. By the time medical staff arrived, Tori hadn't been breathing for 10 minutes. "I would've loved to see what her future would've been," Tori's mother, Stephanie Moyer, told the local news. But as Moyer points out, Tori was "sentenced to death before she even saw the judge." Tori's death was not an isolated incident. More and more women are dying from causes related to opioid use, and the state's response has been criminalization, not care. In 2015, 418 women in Tori's home state of Pennsylvania died from opioid overdoses, a marked rise from previous years. This increase mirrors a rise in overdose deaths among women across the nation. Although men still use opioids at higher rates than women, women are quickly catching up. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported in 2013 that "deaths from prescription painkiller overdoses among women have increased more than 400 percent since 1999, compared to 265 percent among men."

Insurance Issue Pushing More Expensive Drugs, Not Generics

August 8, 2017 Charles Ornstein and Katie Thomas, www.propublica.org Educate! Big Pharma, Insurance, Profit

By Charles Ornstein for ProPublica and Katie Thomas for The New York Times - It’s standard advice for consumers: If you are prescribed a medicine, always ask if there is a cheaper generic. Nathan Taylor, a 3-D animator who lives outside Houston, has tried to do that with all his medications. But when he fills his monthly prescription for Adderall XR to treat his attention-deficit disorder, his insurance company refuses to cover the generic. Instead, he must make a co-payment of $90 a month for the brand-name version. By comparison, he pays $10 or less each month for the five generic medications he also takes. “It just befuddles me that they would do that,” said Taylor, 41. A spokesman for his insurer, Humana, did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls requesting comment. With each visit to the pharmacy, Taylor enters the upside-down world of prescription drugs, where conventional wisdom about how to lower drug costs is often wrong. Consumers have grown accustomed to being told by insurers — and middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers — that they must give up their brand-name drugs in favor of cheaper generics.

The Fight Over Price Gouging By The Pharmaceutical Industry

August 5, 2017 Lydia O'neal And David Sirota, www.ibtimes.com Resist! Big Pharma, Drugs

By Lydia O'neal And David Sirota for International Business Times - As the Democratic Governors Association raised $2.28 million from drug companies and health insurers in the first half of 2017, the group’s chairman, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, echoed a health care lobbyist’s criticism of a landmark bill to combat drug price-gouging, according to documents obtained by International Business Times. The documents detail how Malloy’s insurance department, led by a former Cigna lobbyist, tried to water down the bipartisan initiative as it moved through the state’s legislature. This spring, while Washington lawmakers wrestled over national health care policy, Connecticut lawmakers worked to join several other states that have passed legislation to curb an alleged drug price fraud scheme at the heart of multiple class-action lawsuits across the country. The suits accuse insurance firms and their pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, of attaching arbitrary and fraudulent premiums to consumers’ prescription drug prices, then pocketing the cost difference — all while using “gag orders” to keep pharmacies from informing customers about lower-priced options.

Rx Companies To Get $28 Billion Tax Break In GOP Health Plan

June 23, 2017 Will Rice, www.americansfortaxfairness.org Educate! Big Pharma, Corporations, Taxes

By Will Rice for Americans for Tax Fairness - Pharmaceutical companies are among the biggest offshore tax dodgers. Three drug firms—Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck—are among the top 10 American corporations stashing earnings offshore to avoid U.S. taxes. Pfizer (maker of Celebrex, Lipitor, and Viagra) alone has some $200 billion in profits parked offshore, much of it presumably in tax havens. Gilead Sciences and Amgen each has around $37 billion offshore, apparently all of it in tiny nations where little or no tax is due. (American corporations owe U.S. taxes on all their worldwide profits each year, but a giant loophole lets multinationals indefinitely delay paying on profits booked offshore.) A big chunk of Gilead’s stashed profits came from hepatitis cures priced so high that hundreds of thousands of patients went untreated even as the federal government was laying out billions of dollars a year for Gilead’s drugs. Last year, Pfizer tried to renounce its American identity in order to dodge $35 billion in U.S. taxes, even though it’s prospered here for over 150 years and gets about a billion dollars annually in federal contracts.

Drug Firms Poured 780M Painkillers Into WV Amid Rise Of Overdoses

December 21, 2016 Eric Eyre, www.wvgazettemail.com Resist! Big Pharma, Drug use, Drugs

By Eric Eyre for Charleston Gazette-Mail - The trail of painkillers leads to West Virginia's southern coalfields, to places like Kermit, population 392. There, out-of-state drug companies shipped nearly 9 million highly addictive — and potentially lethal — hydrocodone pills over two years to a single pharmacy in the Mingo County town. Rural and poor, Mingo County has the fourth-highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the United States. The trail also weaves through Wyoming County, where shipments of OxyContin have doubled, and the county's overdose death rate leads the nation. One mom-and-pop pharmacy in Oceana received 600 times as many oxycodone pills as the Rite Aid drugstore just eight blocks away.

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