November 20, 2009
Big Pharma, Unleashed
In America, giant pharmaceutical corporations run roughshod over the public. They price gouge, charging 50% more than in civilized countries. They foist useless, often harmful — even deadly — drugs on the market. They profoundly corrupt the medical profession. Adding insult to injury, they pay unimaginable sums of money to get whatever they want from Congress. It's an outrageous situation. To learn the details of what's really going on I turned to Melody Petersen, who's been writing and reporting on Big Pharma for over ten years and whose latest book, Our Daily Meds
Comments
This may be old news to some but it was not mentioned in the interview. The news came to me by way of Barbara Ehrenreich's "Brightsided" in which she notes that drug companies recruit cheerleaders directly into their drug rep staffs from (assumedly) the athletic fields in colleges.
Here is a source which notes the original story in the New York Times:
http://www.edrugsearch.com/edsblog/introducing-the-all-pharma-cheerleading-squad/
This is the height crassness but it has a logic: the doc has to listen stories of illness all day. The drug rep is like a ray of sunshine in the day and so the doc is particularly receptive. This has been treated in Hollywood film and documentary as well.
The feature film is called "Side Effects."
Posted by: Lon C Ponschock | November 20, 2009 2:41 PM
Excellent Podcast!
I was wondering if your October 17, 2008 podcast "Where's the Virus?" talking about the missing connection between HIV and AIDS could possibly fit in the same category of 'invented a disease'. What do you think?
[Seems logical to me, particularly when they still can turn up the actual virus. Good catch! g.]
Posted by: Tom Rudolf | November 24, 2009 10:00 AM