America's biggest pharma companies would kill you in a NY minute for cash.

But wait, there's more:

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that Rep. Tom Marino, a Pennsylvania Republican, has withdrawn his name from consideration to become the nation's next drug czar.

The congressman's withdrawal comes after a joint CBS "60 Minutes" and Washington Post report revealed that Marino took nearly $100,000 from the pharmaceutical lobby while sponsoring a bill that made it easier for drug companies to distribute opioids across American communities and thwart the Drug Enforcement Agency.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/17/politics/trump-tweet-marino-drug-czar/index.html

How does Marino live with himself? The terrible thing is the Big Pharma companies will all get off scot free. They won't be broken up and none of the executives will go to jail. Jesus, it just makes me sick!

Wordslinger wrote:Masking their hideous actions by pretending to serve the American people through research aimed at combating disease, these big pharma companies are happy to kill for money, as long as it keeps coming in.

The U.S. is one of only two countries in the entire world that allow Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) ads--those ads you see on TV for such debilitating maladies as Restless Leg Syndrome and Chronic Dry Eye.

And now Big Pharma is lobbying the FDA to ease up on the warnings in those ads:

A woman is getting her hair done at the salon, [in one ad] but she's mortified of what her stylist will think of the red patches on her neck.

She decides to have a "serious talk" with her dermatologist, who prescribes Humira, the best-selling drug in the world, made by AbbVie of North Chicago. And her skin clears up.

But then for the next 35 seconds, the announcer rattles off a list of side effects. Humira can lower a person's ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. "Serious, sometimes fatal events" — including infections, lymphoma and other types of cancer — have happened. There's something about heart failure, blood, liver and nervous system problems.

It's a long list of warnings — maybe too long, the Food and Drug Administration says.

The FDA is studying whether those warnings, in broadcast and print ads, overwhelm and confuse consumers. The agency says no one reads more than half of the fine print in drug ads, and of those who do, 55 percent say it's hard to understand.

The upshot: People are increasingly ignoring risk factors, the agency says, and thus missing some important safety information.

In recent months, the FDA has been talking with drugmakers, medical groups and consumer groups about ways to make the ads clearer and drive home the most important safety risks.

A few weeks ago, the FDA rolled out "reissued revised draft guidance." Under the proposed guidelines, drugmakers would still be required to include "black-box warnings" about the most serious risks. But they wouldn't have to rattle off a laundry list of every possible side effect.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-confusing-drug-ads-0906-biz-20150904-story.html

Let's hear it for Free Markets!

I am so sick of the psoriasis drug ads I can't stand it. In one of them, a woman's husband obviously will not touch her because she has something called "plaque psoriasis." It's not leprosy folks. It runs in my family, and I've never even once been ashamed to go out in public because of it. My kids have never been ashamed to be around their friends with it either. And I can guarantee you, the so called cures they are offering are worse than the disease. They've had creams for years to treat the disease, but now they want people to take a systemic cure that could possibly kill them. And of course, it's very expensive.
The best cure is actually sunshine, and sunshine is free. Ads for big pharma are what brought the cost of drugs up dramatically several years back and until they are banned the prices will stay jacked up. There's no reason anybody should "ask their doctor" about a drug. Your doctor already knows about it, because he's been besieged by drug salesman trying to get him to prescribe it already.

bigdog wrote:I am so sick of the psoriasis drug ads I can't stand it. In one of them, a woman's husband obviously will not touch her because she has something called "plaque psoriasis." It's not leprosy folks. It runs in my family, and I've never even once been ashamed to go out in public because of it. My kids have never been ashamed to be around their friends with it either. And I can guarantee you, the so called cures they are offering are worse than the disease. They've had creams for years to treat the disease, but now they want people to take a systemic cure that could possibly kill them. And of course, it's very expensive.
The best cure is actually sunshine, and sunshine is free. Ads for big pharma are what brought the cost of drugs up dramatically several years back and until they are banned the prices will stay jacked up. There's no reason anybody should "ask their doctor" about a drug. Your doctor already knows about it, because he's been besieged by drug salesman trying to get him to prescribe it already.

"Gets rid of blackheads, the heartbreak of psoriasis,
Christ, you don't know the meaning of heartbreak, buddy," A line from a very old Tom Waits song called Step Right Up.

These ads should be banned. By the time you listen to the whole gamut for the day...well, you probably think you have everything wrong with you. Meanwhile, the people supposedly on the medication have such happy lives, now that they have their drug of choice...side effects be damned...these people are really living again. It's completely Orwellian.

Floridatexan wrote:
These ads should be banned.

They ARE banned, everywhere but here and New Zealand.

More "Free Market" misery, thanks to Goliath Corporations and ALEC.

For the nausea-inducing details, go here: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Corporations

On a positive note, my doctor, who is retiring, is planning to dispense medical marijuana. I just love this man.