Big Pharma criminality no longer a conspiracy
theory: Bribery, fraud, price fixing now a matter of public record
Monday, July 09, 2012
http://www.naturalnews.com
(NaturalNews) Those of us who have long been describing the pharmaceutical
industry as a "criminal racket" over the last few years have been wholly
vindicated by recent news. Drug and vaccine manufacturer Merck was caught
red-handed by two of its own scientists faking vaccine efficacy data by
spiking blood samples with animal antibodies. GlaxoSmithKline has just been
fined a whopping $3 billion for bribing doctors, lying to the FDA, hiding
clinical trial data and fraudulent marketing. Pfizer, meanwhile has been sued by
the nation's pharmacy retailers for what is alleged as an "overarching
anticompetitive scheme" to keep generic cholesterol drugs off the market and
thereby boost its own profits.
The picture that's emerging is one of a criminal drug industry that has
turned to mafia tactics in the absence of any real science that would prove
their products to be safe or effective. The emergence of this extraordinary
evidence of bribery, scientific fraud, lying to regulators and monopolistic
practices that harm consumers is also making all those doctors and "skeptics"
who defended Big Pharma and vaccines eat their words.
To defend Big Pharma today is to defend a cabal of criminal corporations
that have proven they will do anything -- absolutely anything -- to keep
their profits rolling in. It makes no difference who they have to bribe, what
studies they have to falsify, or who has to be threatened into silence. They
will stop at nothing to expand their profit base, even if it means harming (or
killing) countless innocents.
Let's take a look at recent revelations:GlaxoSmithKline
pleads guilty to bribery, fraud and other crimes
It what is now the largest criminal fraud settlement ever to come out of the
pharmaceutical industry, GlaxoSmithKline has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $1
billion in criminal fines and $2 billion in civil fines following a nine-year
federal investigation into its activities.
According to U.S. federal investigators, GlaxoSmithKline (http://www.naturalnews.com/036416_GlaxoSmithKline_fraud_criminal_char...):
• Routinely bribed doctors with luxury vacations and paid speaking gigs
• Fabricated drug safety data and lied to the FDA
• Defrauded Medicare and Medicaid out of billions
• Deceived regulators about the effectiveness of its drugs
• Relied on its deceptive practices to earn billions of dollars selling
potentially dangerous drugs to unsuspecting consumers and medical patients
And this is just the part they got caught doing. GSK doesn't even deny any of
this. The company simply paid the $3 billion fine, apologized to its customers,
and continued conducting business as usual.
By the way, in addition to bribing physicians, GSK has plenty of money to spread
around bribing celebrities and others who pimps its products. The company
reportedly paid $275,000 to the celebrity doctor known as "Dr. Drew," who
promoted Glaxo's mind-altering antidepressant drug Wellbutrin (http://naturalsociety.com/top-radio-doctor-paid-by-glaxosmithkline-to...).
As the Wall Street Journal reports:
In June 1999, popular radio personality Dr. Drew Pinsky used the airwaves to
extol the virtues of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's antidepressant Wellbutrin, telling
listeners he prescribes it and other medications to depressed patients because
it "may enhance or at least not suppress sexual arousal" as much as other
antidepressants do. But one thing listeners didn't know was that, two months
before the program aired, Dr. Pinsky -- who gained fame as "Dr. Drew" during
years co-hosting a popular radio sex-advice show "Loveline" -- received the
second of two payments from
Glaxo totaling $275,000 for "services for Wellbutrin."
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230393340457750503200685...)
Merck falsified vaccine data, spiked blood samples and more, say
former employees
According to former Merck virologists Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, the
company: (http://www.naturalnews.com/036328_Merck_mumps_vaccine_False_Claims_Ac...)
• "Falsified test data to fabricate a
vaccine efficacy rate of
95 percent or higher."
• Spiked the blood test with animal antibodies in order to artificially inflate
the appearance of immune system antibodies.
• Pressured the two virologists to "participate in the
fraud and subsequent
cover-up."
• Used the falsified trial results to swindle the U.S. government out of
"hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate
immunization."
• Intimidated the scientists, threatening them with going to jail unless they
stayed silent.
This is all documented in a 2010 False Claims Act which NaturalNews has
acquired and posted here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Merck-False-Claims-Act.p...
Millions of children put at risk by Merck
In that document the two virologists say they, "witnessed firsthand the improper
testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate
the vaccine's efficacy findings."
They also claim that because of the faked vaccine results, "the United States
has over the last decade paid
Merck hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide
adequate immunization... The United States is by far the largest financial
victim of Merck's fraud."
They go on to point out that children are the real victims, however:
"But the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year
are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an
adequate level of protection. ...The failure in Merck's vaccine has allowed this
disease to linger with significant outbreaks continuing to occur."
Merck's mumps viral strain is 45 years old!
According to the complaint, Merck has been using the same mumps strain --
weakened from generations of being "passaged" -- for the last 45 years! The
complaint reads:
"For more than thirty years, Merck has had an exclusive license from the FDA
to manufacture and sell a mumps vaccine in the U.S. The FDA first approved the
vaccine in 1967. It was developed by Dr. Maurice Hilleman, at Merck's West Point
research facility, from the mumps virus that infected his five year-old daughter
Jeryl Lynn. Merck continues to use this 'Jeryl Lynn' strain of the virus for its
vaccine today."A complete medical farce
This information appears to show Merck's mumps vaccine to be a complete medical
farce. Those who blindly backed Merck's vaccines -- the science bloggers, "skeptics,"
doctors, CDC and even the FDA -- have been shown to be utter fools who have
now destroyed their reputations by siding with an industry now known to be
dominated by scientific fraud and unbounded criminality.
That's the really hilarious part in all this: After decades of doctors,
scientists and government authorities blindly and brainlessly repeating
the mantra of "95% effectiveness," it all turns out to be total quackery
hogwash. Utterly fabricated. Quackety-quack quack. And all those hundreds of
millions of Americans who lined up to be injected with MMR vaccines were all
repeatedly and utterly conned into potentially harming themselves while
receiving no medical benefit.
Intelligent, informed NaturalNews readers, home school parents, and "awakened"
people who said "No!" to vaccines are now emerging as the victors in all this.
By refusing to be injected with Merck's vaccines, they avoided being assaulted
with a fraudulent cocktail of adjuvant chemicals and all-but-useless mumps
strains over four decades old. They protected their time, money and health.
Those who refuse to be physically violated by vaccines are, once again, turning
out to be the smartest people in society. No wonder they also tend to be
healthier than the clueless fools who line up to get vaccinated every year.
Merck fraudulently misrepresented the efficacy of its vaccine and
contributed to the spread of infectious disease, says lawsuit
The faked vaccine efficacy numbers aren't the only troubles Merck is now facing.
Shortly after the above False Claims Act was made public, Chatom Primary Care
filed suit against Merck. That document is available from NaturalNews at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Chatom-Lawsuit-Merck-Mum...
It alleges that:
• [Merck engaged in] ...a decade-long scheme to falsify and misrepresent the
true efficacy of its vaccine.
• Merck fraudulently represented and continues to falsely represent in its
labeling and elsewhere that its Mumps Vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95 percent
of higher.
• Merck knows and has taken affirmative steps to conceal -- by using improper
testing techniques and falsifying test data -- that its Mumps Vaccine is, and
has been since at least 1999, far less than 95 percent effective.
• Merck designed a testing methodology that evaluated its vaccine against a less
virulent strain of the mumps virus. After the results failed to yield Merck's
desired efficacy, Merck abandoned the methodology and concealed the study's
findings.
• Merck also engaged in "incorporating the use of animal antibodies to
artificially inflate the results... destroying evidence of the falsified data
and then lying to an FDA investigator... threatened a virologist in Merck's
vaccine division with jail if he reported the fraud to the FDA."
• "Merck designed a testing methodology that evaluated its vaccine against a
less virulent strain of the mumps virus. After the results failed to yield
Merck's desired efficacy, Merck abandoned the methodology and concealed the
study's findings. [Then] Merck designed even more scientifically flawed
methodology, this time incorporating the use of animal antibodies to
artificially inflate the results, but it too failed to achieve Merck's
fabricated efficacy rate. Confronted with two failed methodologies, Merck
then falsified the test data to guarantee the results it desired. Having
achieved the desired, albeit falsified, efficacy threshold, Merck submitted
these fraudulent results to the FDA and European Medicines Agency."
• "Merck took steps to cover up the tracks of its fraudulent testing by
destroying evidence of the falsified data and then lying to an FDA
investigator... Merck also attempted to buy the silence and cooperation
of its staff by offering them financial incentives to follow the direction of
Merck personnel overseeing the fraudulent testing process. Merck also
threatened... Stephen Krahling, a virologist in Merck's vaccine division from
1999 to 2001, with jail if he reported fraud to the FDA."
• "Merck continued to conceal what it knew about the diminished efficacy of its
Mumps Vaccine even after significant mumps outbreaks in 2006 and 2009."
Obama administration has zero interest in actual justice
Another interesting note in all this is that under President Obama, the U.S.
Dept. of Justice showed no interest whatsoever in investigating Merck
over the False Claims Act filed by two of its former virologists. Despite the
convincing evidence of fraud described in detail by insider whistleblowers, the
Obama Department of Justice, led by gun-running Attorney General Eric Holder who
is already facing serious questions over Operation Fast and Furious,
simply chose to ignore the False Claims Act complaint.
When evidence of criminal fraud was brought before the U.S. Department of
Justice, in other words, the DoJ looked the other way with a wink and a nod to
the medical crimes taking place right under their noses. Who cares if tens of
millions of children are being injected year after year with a fraudulent
mumps vaccine? There's money to be made, after all, and exploiting the
bodies of little children for profit is just business as usual in a fascist
nation dominated by corporate interests.Pfizer sued by
retailers over anticompetitive scheme
Adding to all this, Pfizer has now been sued by five U.S. retailers (pharmacies)
who accuse the company of monopolistic market practices. According to the
lawsuit, Pfizer conspired to prevent generic versions of its blockbuster
cholesterol drug Lipitor from entering the market. This was done to protect
billions in profits while making sure patients did not have access to more
affordable cholesterol drugs. Pfizer sells nearly $10 billion worth of
Lipitor each year.
According to the Reuters report on this lawsuit, Pfizer is being accused of (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/05/us-pfizer-walgreen-lipitor-...):
• Obtaining a fraudulent patent
• Engaging in sham litigation
• Entering a price-fixing agreement to delay cheaper generics
• Entering arrangements with pharmacy benefit managers to force retailers to buy
more Lipitor (chemical name is atorvastatin calcium)No
arrests or prosecution of Big Pharma executives
One of the most astonishing realizations in all this is that given all the
criminal fraud, bribery, misrepresentation, lying to the FDA, price fixing
and other crimes that are going on in the pharmaceutical industry, you'd think
somebody somewhere might be arrested and charged with a crime, right?
Nope.
To date, not a single pharmaceutical CEO, marketing employee or drug rep has
been charged with anything related to all this fraud. In America, drug
company employees are "above the law" just like top mafia bosses of a bygone
era.
How insane is this, exactly? Consider this:
Imagine if YOU, an individual, went around town bribing doctors, falsifying
data, selling a fraudulent product to the government, lying to regulators,
engaging in anti-trade price-fixing and threatening your employees into silence.
What would happen to you?
You'd probably wind up rotting in prison, the subject of an FBI
investigation and a DoJ prosecution.
So why is it okay for a multi-billion-dollar corporation to carry out these same
crimes and get away with it? Why are the CEOs of top drug companies given a free
pass to commit felony crimes and endless fraud?
I'll tell you why, and you're not gonna like the answer: Because America has
become a nation run by crooks for the benefit of crooks. It's one big
country club, and as comedian George Carlin used to say, "YOU ain't in it!"
If Big Pharma would falsify data on vaccines, what else would the
industry do?
I hope you're getting the bigger picture in all this, friends. If these drug
companies routinely bribe doctors, falsify data, defraud the government and
commit felony crimes without remorse, what else would they be willing to do for
profit?
Would they:
• Falsify efficacy data on other prescription drugs?
• Exploit children for deadly vaccine trials?
• Invent fictitious diseases to sell more drugs?
• Unleash bioweapons to cause a profitable pandemic?
• Conspire with the CDC to spread fear to promote vaccinations?
• Silence whistleblowers who try to go public with the truth?
• Give people cancer via stealth viruses in vaccines?
• Destroy the careers of medical scientists who question Big Pharma?
• Force a medical monopoly on the entire U.S. population via socialist health
care legislation?
But of course they would. In fact, the industry is doing all those things right
now. And if you don't believe me, just remember that five years ago, no one
believed me when I said drug companies were engaged in criminal conspiracies
to defraud the nation -- something that has now been proven over a nine-year
investigation.