DON'T put that in your mouth!!!!

It has just been reported that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has been found guilty and fined over 3 billion dollars in the largest health care fraud case in US history. The charges included illegal promotion of drugs, failure to report safety data, bribery of doctors and promoting drugs for uses they were not licensed for.
This is not the company's first brush with the law, Wikipedia has a fairly decent list of "indiscretions" including a 3.1 billion dollar IRS fine from 2006 and an ongoing suit involving promotion of the drug Paxil for children and it's link to increased suicide rates.
The reason I am posting this is not to rub their face in it, but because I just happened to be reading "The Accountant's Story" by Roberto Escobar, brother of notorious (and deceased) coc aine kingpin Pablo Escobar and the hypocracy had a real stench to it. I don't support illegal drug activity and have no sympathy for those who engage in it, so why is GlaxoSmithKline still in business?
When you compare the two businesses (Medellin Cartel and GlaxoSmithKline) you are faced with one very important difference, and it really helps illustrate the level of greed and lack of moral decency we welcome into our homes under false pretenses. Pablo Escobar NEVER placed a single magazine ad, posted a single billboard or bribed a single pediatrician in an effort to convince a parent to feed coc aine to a child which is exactly what GlaxoSmithKline is doing by promoting dangerous drugs like Paxil.
Bad guys don't always look like bad guys, sometimes they wear suits.

Sounds like a book my ex wife would have written.

your ex wife did write it charles, im sorry. im taking great care of her, she says hello

reply to post by Trublbrwing

Come on, first rule is Linky, linky, wheres the linky?

reply to post by Trublbrwing


Corporations want to have the rights of persons? Make 'em take the responsibilities too, and throw their asses in jail! That's my solution, anyway.

Seriously, that is f---ed up. Obviously no amount of monetary penalty is harming them; they just go to more desperate lengths to make more. Maybe they should be crushed, jailed, and made a huge example of....

Link

One comment based on experience.

It is sometimes the case that, after a prolonged period of prescribing, doctors notice that a drug is treating a malady not associated with the prescribed drug. In that event, they ask other patients, "Would you like to try this for your problem? It's not approved for your problem, but my experience is that it works."

I was asked this question about a resistant health problem, which was unaffected by other meds. I said, "Yes." I found relief from that issue.

I can only speak for myself but, if the patient is fully informed, they should be allowed to make the call. The drug manufacturer gets feedback from physicians about what its drugs do. If there is adequate feedback they tell other physicians about the results of patient experience.

This is a common practice for all drug companies and a number of physicians. It keeps everyone informed about the benefits and deficits of specific medications.