Drugs and Ghost Writers

From the New York Times

Wyeth’s Use of Medical Ghostwriters Questioned
By DUFF WILSON

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company, paid ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles favorable to its hormone replacement therapy Prempro, according to Congressional letters seeking more information about the company’s involvement in medical ghostwriting. At least one article was published even after a federal study found the drug raised the risk of breast cancer.

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/business/13wyeth.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print

I won't belabor my anti-big pharma feelings but let's say I am not the least surprised by this. Pay someone to write nice stuff - hmmm...good idea - except this is not some Hollywood star using a ghost writer but a company whose products can [and do] KILL you...and in fact they used a ghost writer after knowing that an HRT drug increased the risk of breast cancer.

Nice people these suits at Wyeth - "profits above all" is the motto for most corporations..

Message to users of the products? "We don't care about you at all - except for - buy buy buy our stuff - we only like your wallet."

More on Seniors and Bankruptcy

I'm sorry - but in the USA when an 80-year old has no option but to file bankruptcy - I get royally pissed!

This 80-year-old woman was still working to supplement her social security income but she needed surgery and like too many other Americans - she used credit cards for food...and now she is filing for bankruptcy.

Unfortunately she is not alone!

In 1991, the 55-plus age group accounted for about 8 percent of bankruptcy filers, according to the study, which looked at more than 6,000 cases filed in 1991, 2001 or 2007. By last year, filers 55 and over accounted for 22 percent.

Each age group under 55 saw double-digit percentage drops in their bankruptcy filing rates over the survey period, older Americans saw remarkable increases. The filing rate per thousand people ages 55-64 was up 40 percent; among 65- to 74-year-olds it increased 125 percent; and among the 75-to-84-year-old set, it was up 433 percent.

[emphasis added by Lynn]

Full article HERE

My mother used to worry about outliving her money - so should the rest of us as it is more of a reality.

Again I ask - why do we treat our elders this way? Why do we allow medical establishments to force us into bankruptcy? With the big pharmas helping push all along on this same path? [often with meds we do not need]

We need a sane medical policy like universal coverage - which would help alleviate a lot of the sky rocketing costs.

The USA has among the highest medical costs in the world - but not even the best care anymore...that is sad too.

Take meds? Then read this!

If you have been a reader of this blog, you know I do not take kindly to what are called the Big Pharmas...

Yet even I can be disgusted more than I already was as I just finished reading this book by Melody Petersen:

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs

She was the drug industry reporter for the New York Times from 1999 to 2003 and boy did she do some research!

The disgusting thesis of the book is that the big pharmas "create" diseases and ailments in order to sell a pill that they are designing or have already made! It's that simple. Are they trying to cure anything? Not really - just pushing pills - especially onto older Americans!

From what I gather, they tried to push the pills in Europe - but Europeans are a bit more sophisticated as are their governments and so did not allow some sales.. Here? Big pharmas run the government and no one says NO to them, their money or their pills.

Got a problem? Take a pill! Pill cause a problem? Take another! That pill create a problem? Here is yet another pill.

Do we care if you are over-pilled and the pills can - and do - kill you? Not at all - we make money and that's all that matters!

An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that an estimated 106,000 hospitalized patients die each year from drugs which, by medical standards, are properly prescribed and properly administered. More than two million suffer serious side effects. [emphasis added]

Reference: Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN: "Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients." JAMA 1998;279:1200

Adverse drug reactions from prescribed drugs - not street drugs - is the 4th leading killer in the USA and these adverse reactions have been on the increase since 1998.

I had my thyroid gland nuked 20 years ago and so must take that one med.. I have steadfastly refused to add pills for "hormone replacement, "stave off osteoporosis", "protect your heart" and other such maladies.

I am not suggesting you stop taking meds, but I do suggest you sit down with your physician and talk about the list of meds you take and if yo really need all those newly made up ones that docs are paid to prescribe.

That's my soap box for another day - [and I've said that before] - but yes - most docs are paid well by the big pharmas to get you to take and keep taking your daily doses of pills!

How many times can one say "here we go again?"

I guess the answer is: as long as the big pharmas push for their bottom line and not anyones health !

The most recent "news:"

WASHINGTON: Another study has found that diabetes drugs intended to help patients live longer, healthier lives may in fact increase the chances they will die — this time of heart attacks and other causes.

The news, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, set off a clamour by consumer groups, heart experts and Congress — some of whom question the safety of all drugs in this class after a number of studies that have shown liver, heart and bone side effects.

Full article HERE

I really feel badly for anyone who has to take serious medication for life threatening illnesses...but while the pharmaceutical companies rake in obscene profits - they are producing products that hurt the very people they say they are helping.

And what got me more angry - was that an article I first read about this issue - went on to lament that the drug company's stock prices fell..

Really lets you know what is the most important aspect of this issue - doesn't it?

Here we go again

Another set of drugs and again - problems....This time it's the anti heartburn "stuff." If you take these on a long term basis you stand the chance of fracturing your hips.... Why? The drugs may reduce the body's absorption of calcium....

I'm not sure anyone needs all the drugs we have pushed on us daily - in the paper and on the TV and radio. Saw a full page ad today for some new drug...and that page was followed by another full page where all the warnings were.....

But I am a cynic and I think these pharmas are only out to make money and make it on the growing adult population....

Beware what you take - be it prescribed or over the counter....you are the guinea pig for the long term effects!