by Stuart Chaifetz
Fraud is a pretty powerful word. When something is painted as being a fraud, we immediately begin to dismiss it as being illegitimate, corrupt and deceitful.
It’s also a dangerous word to use, because the person wielding it can be dismissed if there is no evidence to back up their claim. It’s not something that I throw out casually and I am not at all comfortable simply accusing someone, or in this case members of the Pharmaceutical industry, of fraud.
But I have no problem quoting it!
Drug maker is accused of fraud
“The Justice Department charged the drug maker Forest Laboratories on Wednesday with defrauding the government of millions of dollars by illegally marketing the popular antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro for unapproved uses in children and teenagers.”
I am going to get back to that article at the end of this blog, but for now, sit back and watch a cavalcade of fraud from some of the biggest names in the Pharmaceutical industry:
Pfizer found guilty of defrauding state
Aventis to Pay $95 Million to Settle Fraud Charge
Bristol-Myers Squibb settles Medicaid pharmaceutical pricing and marketing fraud allegations
Court revives fraud claims vs. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary
Hearing On Fraud And Abuse Issues In Pharmaceutical Pricing.
Ala. lawyer asks jury for $800M in drug fraud case
“The state claims GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis engaged in fraud from 1991 to 2005, depriving the cash-strapped Medicaid program of badly needed resources.”
Most of these fraud stories dealt with pricing. But there are other, far more serious types of fraud going on in the industry, where data from Human Clinical Trials are either hidden or falsified:
Drug data fraud may spark marketing crackdown
“A PROMINENT case of scientific fraud is being seized on by critics of the pharmaceutical industry to highlight their calls for a crackdown on the use of scientific studies for marketing purposes.
“Starting in 1996, Scott Reuben of the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, published a series of trials testing whether painkillers, including Pfizer’s Celebrex and Merck’s Vioxx, relieve post-operative pain. Now 21 of Reuben’s papers have been shown to contain fabricated data, after he was investigated by Baystate officials. Many have already been retracted.”
Facing criticism, U.S. agency bars 7 doctors from drug trials
“The Food and Drug Administration disqualifies researchers that the agency finds were involved in misconduct, including falsifying results, during studies.”
Spitzer Sues a Drug Maker, Saying It Hid Negative Data*
“In a novel claim testing the way that the $400 billion worldwide pharmaceutical industry is regulated, the New York State attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, sued the British-based drug giant GlaxoSmithKline yesterday, accusing the company of fraud in concealing negative information about its popular antidepressant medicine Paxil.”
*Please note that that article came out when Eliot Spitzer was the respected Attorney General of New York, and not the creepy ex-governor that we know him to be today.
Maker of AIDS Drug Accused of Securities Fraud
“The Securities and Exchange Commission Monday sued ICN Pharmaceuticals and its Viratek Inc. subsidiary for securities fraud, contending that they knowingly misled the public about a Viratek drug’s effectiveness in fighting the AIDS virus.”
“In a separate clinical trial of individuals with AIDS-related complex (ARC), the SEC said, the company knowingly withheld preliminary results showing that a disproportionate share of those individuals on ribavirin had died.”
I want to end this by going back to first article I quoted, which dealt with the drug Lexapro. At first glance it appears to be monetary fraud at hand, but look at what really was going on:
“In a civil complaint filed by the United States attorney’s office in Boston, federal prosecutors alleged that former top executives at Forest concealed for several years a clinical study that showed that the drugs were not effective in children and might even pose risks to them, including causing some to become suicidal.”
“From 2001 to 2004, Forest heavily promoted results from another clinical trial it had financed that showed that the drugs were effective, without disclosing the negative study…”
Hiding data on a drug that might cause children to commit suicide?
If proven, then this is a fraud perpetrated against humanity itself.
.
Stuart Chaifetz fights against animal cruelty and for children’s rights. He runs a political action committee that supports pro-animal legislators and is also President of the Cherry Hill Special Education Alliance. The ARISE program, created by the Animal Protection League of New Jersey, promotes ground breaking and powerful non-animal research that creates better science, is more effective and saves lives.
Please sign & cross-post: Petition Florida to Incorporate a Humane Education Curriculum
Abusers in Central Florida include Vivisectors & Lab Animal Suppliers as well as the known atrocities that are the domain of every farming community. Join us — Animal Liberation CF – and Bring the Fight Home… or email me at camille@negotiationisover.com with the subject “Liberation CF”.
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Camille, why the hell do you not answer ANY questions?
And before you say “LOL you people have nothing better to do then whine on my blog?” I have noticed you post alot on NegotiationIsDone.com.
What constitutes “a lot”?
Gimme a break, Chris… they took Negotiation is Over and made a pathetic knock-off, Negotiation is Done, which exists solely to counter my ideas.
Yes, when I get bored, I wander over to see what the vapid and violent are up to… it’s quite amusing.
So when trolls and non-vegans post comments on this blog, it’s because they have ‘Nothing better to do’, but when you do the same on NID it’s because you want to ‘counter their arguments’?
Chris, let’s be honest… you’ve never seen me engage in debate or try to “counter” their inanities. I wander over when I’m BORED.
That site was created for my amusement. If not, I certainly appreciate the entertainment.
That site was created for my amusement. If not, I certainly appreciate the entertainment.
I highly doubt that. Your comments, without exception, are bitter, childish and frequently threatening towards the NID members. You are no better than the trolls you encounter.
Well, damn, Chris — Negotiation Is Over is an instrument of positive change… can’t have that kind of useless negativity here. But…
a girl has to play some place….
A girl has to play some place….
Once again an excuse trolls often use.
Camille I have to ask – is this whole blog some elaborate way to troll people?
No, Chris.
I’m playing at the moment because I’m waiting for something and I’m trying to distract myself.
This blog is about the most serious issue on the planet today: the enslavement and torture of billions of sentient beings — fed to a holocaust so their body parts can be ingested by the slobbering masses; so they can be objectified and robbed of every shred of dignity and subjected to lifelong misery and agony in labs; sold as property and used for entertainment.
I don’t understand how you would think the serious nature of these issues could be considered trolling.
My attitude toward the blatantly complicit? I am non-negotiable. I have no desire to tolerate apathy or stupidity.
I would hardly call the meat industry the most serious issue of today. If I had to pick one, I would say it was the suffering of people in the 3rd world, especially the children.
And you attitude towards ‘the slobbering masses’ will not win you any allies, just more misguided and aggressive do-gooders.
Excellent!
I happen to believe that the billions of nonhumans gratuitously commodified and murdered every year is the single-most disgraceful & unnecessary condition on the planet.
However, the suffering people in third world countries are equally exploited by agribusiness and the western world, in general. We could talk about how we plunder resources (e.g., diamonds, coffee) and yet these fertile regions remain engrossed in poverty and violence.
But I’d rather focus on the grain and corn that is exported from regions where poverty is endemic. It takes 16 pounds of grain (as well as water) to produce one pound of flesh. The resources that are diverted away from exploited humans in third world countries relegate those populations to utter hopelessness. How can poor & disenfranchised humans possibly resist the pennies we throw at them to rape their land and rob them of their sources of food.
If the slobbering american masses would forego murdering animals to eat their mutilated body parts, there would be a direct and immediate effect on the third world’s ability to evolve and sustain itself.
Animal Rights = Human Rights
People of the 3rd world are not suffering because of the overfed West, they are suffering because they live under dictatorships and have no education.
None of these conditions exist in a vacuum.
We take a people who are oppressed and introduce the Western exploitation machine, and we ensure that they will remain impoverished, weak, and powerless… more victims of the capitalist machine.
Well said camille. Animal and human liberation are interconnected.In addition, there are many people and groups fighting for human rights chris and if that is your concern then I’m not sure why you are here. You would do better to join the peace corps, hop on a plane and go help the third world children. We converge on this sight because we are in different parts of the world and the country and we share the common goal of helping our animal brothers and sisters who are suffering and in bondage on a scale never seen before in the history of this planet. We are here to fight for and give a voice to the animals. This is our issue chris, this is what keeps us awake at night. We hear the cries of the suffering animals and we will not turn our back so instead of wasting your time and our time chris, may I suggest you skedattle over to a sight that concerns you.
I’m not sure people like chris come here camille. This is not “let’s negotiate” this is “negotiation is over”.
For the past 24 hours, I kept seeing the same nonsense trying to be posted over and over again; so it seemed reasonable to let one person through to state their case and simply eliminate it.
Chris seemed like the most articulate of the trolls.
Chris seemed like the most articulate of the trolls.
I’m not a damn troll.
The peace corps are calling chris. Buh bye.
I’m fairly certain that you’re one of the contingent intent upon asserting “plant rights” as some kind of a rationalization to perpetuate the holocaust.
If you’re not, then I apologize.
Out of dozens of these same comments, yours was the most reasonably stated.
Haha gotta love the “plant rights” argument. I hear that all the time when discussing animal rights.There must be some corpse muncher handbook that these people read. “Ya, throw the “plants” argument out there. That’ll really get em!” In fact Camille, I heard trent loos pull that card when you were on his radio show. This is what we are up against. These people are not the brightest bulbs on the christmas tree.
Yeah, when I did the Trent Loos interview, that was the first argument out of the box — “plants have feelings too”. In fact, I think he may have cited the same article as Chris — it was from around 1988 from a gardening magazine or something. I’ll have to find it… it would be pretty funny if we weren’t talking about trying to justify wholesale rape and murder.
The second argument was even better… animals don’t mind going to their deaths. It’s a “respectful harvest” where the nonhuman merrily walks into the blood-soaked slaughterhouse, lays down, and peacefully goes to sleep. He never responded to the follow-up blog I sent him — “Dying Piece by Piece” (http://www.scribd.com/doc/19501608/Trent-Loos-Respectful-Harvest-Piece-by-Piece) — one of the blogs that only exists in text form since by site was sabotaged.
Hi Camille! I’m going to start using “slobbering masses” – ofcourse I’ll credit you : ) Keep posting these great pieces.
Hyperbole rocks!
You are right I do remember jackass Loo’s saying that regurgitated bullshit-That he couldn’t possibly force this huge steer to be slaughtered, that it just goes on its merry way. Gee I wonder why ALL the undercover videos show these animals fighting for their lives? He is a lying sack of human excrement. Fuck you Trent Loos.
Trent Loos on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/trent.loos?v=photos#/trent.loos?v=wall
If anyone “friends” him, tell him Christine Godfrey says hello…
That’s my alterego on FB, created just for Loos-ifer. (He knows it’s me btw)