Guest writer for Wake Up World
The alternative health media has published many scathing exposés revealing some of the dirty tricks used by Big Pharma to maintain or increase its profit margin. Quite simply, each and every exposé shows capitalism at its ugliest, and as a consequence of their actions, patients affected may end up broke, permanently sick, sicker, or even dead.
How low will Big Pharma stoop in its lust for profits?
As an insight, and with a view towards protecting yourself not becoming a victim of corporate greed, here are 8 examples to show how Big Pharma cares more about profits than people.
1. Protecting self-interests
Irrespective of high efficacy, the selling of cheap, natural, non-toxic alternative remedies are regarded by Big Pharma as a threat to their profit margins. With help from the authoritative muscle of the FDA and the DEA, Big Pharma makes sure that these alternative remedies are criminalized to protect their self-interests.
For instance, take the recent case of kratom, a non-addictive plant that has helped many addicts wean off their opioid drug addiction. In spite of this and the burgeoning Big Pharma opioid painkiller drug addiction epidemic, there has been an out and out attempt to criminalize the use of kratom.
How low can it get? Not satisfied with making obscene profits on an addictive drug, Big Pharma also tries to prevent addicts from weaning off their addiction by making this natural remedy illegal and thus unavailable.
Further, kratom has also been given an unsubstantiated and inaccurately bad press through the FDA issuing false warnings. These false warnings need to be rescinded.
Related reading: Kratom: The Top-Notch Holistic Substance You’ve Likely Never Heard Of
2. Pushing addiction
Not just opioids, there have been other cases of pushing addiction for bigger profits. Sometimes in the most dastardly ways:
Mylan Pharmaceuticals had secured the patency to their product EpiPen, an anti-allergy pen-type dispenser. They then started giving it away for free at schools. Dependency on this treatment grew at the schools because of its addictive nature. In the meantime, through successful lobbying, Mylan managed to get the “EpiPen Law” introduced (aka the “Emergency Epinephrine Act”), enabling the company to make these epinephrine dispensers permanently available at schools. As more and more became dependent in the schools, the company then went from giving the treatment away for free to hiking the price up to hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Related reading: Big Pharma Channeled Opioids to Black Market
3. Price hiking
With no competitors in its way, that allows Big Pharma to charge ridiculously huge prices for their drugs. For example, U.S cancer patients may have to pay well over $100,000 for their treatment. Bear in mind that the efficacy of the treatment, such as chemotherapy, has been shown to be very low.
4. Neglecting the poor
There is much evidence for Big Pharma’s gro$$ overpricing. How low can it get when Big Pharma charge’s 100’s and 100’s of times more than their manufacturing cost for a medicine that prevents death as desperately ill customers end up dead because they can’t afford this treatment??
Yes, at this very moment there will be some cash-strapped patient or parent somewhere in the country requiring life-saving medication that he/she can’t afford which will result in death. Yet another awful case where health freedom is restricted because of Big Pharma’s lust for profits.
5. Preventing competition
In order for Big Pharma to get its products out into the market, strict and rigid protocols involving R & D, the FDA, manufacturing, marketing and government lobbying needs to be overcome. All of which requires large cash injections, often over long time periods. In effect, these protocols make it very difficult for alternative competitors to compete. Further, Big Pharma will systematically suppress alternative competitors in whatever way that’s seen fitting for preventing competition.
Related reading: Big Pharma and Organized Crime — They Are More Similar Than You May Think6. Protecting patency
If your natural plant-based remedy competes with Big Pharma’s chemical-based equivalent, then you could be in for a hard time:
Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive, non-invasive component of the cannabis plant (cannabis sativa). It has been used for treating a whole range of ailments including muscle spasm relief. However, a number of U.S companies such as Natural Marketing and Consulting and Green Roads Health selling this natural product in a dietary supplement have recently come under threat from the FDA.
Their product containing cannabidiol competes directly with Big Pharma’s patented chemical-based equivalent. In order to protect its profit machine and patency the FDA representing Big Pharma has threatened closure of these companies.
There are many other similar variations on this theme where the FDA muscle in on cheap, natural alternatives and its suppliers with threats of fines or closures.
The natural alternatives bring in no money for the FDA -- unlike Big Pharma’s chemical-based equivalents that have brought in huge sums of money through the FDA demanding strict protocols to meet their approval.
Related reading: Ghost in the Machine: How Big Pharma Controls Our Perception of Drug Safety and Effectiveness
7. Aggressive marketing based on shady science and misinformation
Big Pharma bought and paid off politicians overseeing enactments of liberalizing laws have had a substantial hand in allowing the selling of dangerous pharmaceuticals. Big Pharma’s influence has come from pushing aggressive marketing based on shady science and blatant misinformation.
For instance, Purdue Pharmaceuticals claimed that OxyContin, their opioid painkiller drug, was ‘safe and effective.’ This blatant misinformation covered up the contradictory facts. One of those contradictory facts was that OxyContin had been found to be highly addictive. However, having been given governmental approval, the opioid painkiller made huge sales for Purdue, but went on to create an addiction epidemic.
Related reading: More People Killed From Opioids Than Leading Diseases8. Making employees surplus to requirement
In spite of making billions of dollars, Big Pharma will think nothing of relocating its resources to avoid paying taxes or make employees surplus to requirement in order to save money.
To avoid paying taxes in the USA, Mylan Pharmaceuticals re-incorporated at Holland. However, its staff, including executives and plant infrastructure remained in West Virginia. The re-incorporation at Holland allowed Mylan to a get whopping great tax cut, somewhere in the region of 16-23% even though it was still operating at West Virginia!
As a response to complaints about the extortionate drug prices Big Pharma will often make the excuse that it’s down to high Research & Development costs. This is clearly not the case: For every $20 spent on marketing Big Pharma will spend $1 on R & D. Then there’s the fact that the Big Pharma workforce has been hugely reduced. Many of these job loses are in R & D.
Hindsight
In hindsight, with a view towards protecting yourself instead of becoming a conned victim of insidious corporate greed, do your own research, and remember to discern: Will the treatment offered to you be in your best interest? Or will it be detrimental because Big Pharma doesn’t really care about your heath and all it sees is profitability?
Further, with hindsight, spread the word to expose the greed and corruption to protect the health of your family and friends. Money must not be allowed to be stronger than ethics or truth.
Related reading: Recommended articles by Paul A. Philips:- Played By The System: It’s Time For a New Paradigm
- Monopoly Medicine: How Big Pharma Stops Its Competitors and Monopolizes the Health Industry
- Permaculture: The Future of Self-Sufficient, Community-Based Living
- 7 Ways EMF Technology Seriously Threatens Entire Populations
- The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: 7 Ways the Ruling Elite Are Making Us Dumber
- 10 Signs of Our Global Awakening
- Another Brick In The Wall – Modern Education and the System of Deception
- World Transformation: 7 Paradigm-Shifting Humanitarian Solutions
- 7 Things Ridiculed By Conventional Science – But Which Are Said To Be True
- 7 Suppressed Technologies That Could Have Changed the World
However, over the years I have come to the firm conclusion that just about every subject under the sun needs redefining using more truthful, honest and integral approaches in theory and practice, hence the name ‘New Paradigm’. From these new approaches, from the ‘imagination of ourselves,’ from our visions – a ‘new era’ in humanity can result!
Please visit NewParadigm.ws for more.