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Papantonio: Pill Pushing Doctors Put Patients in Peril
Designer drug products that are killing and crippling consumers all over the US typically have made it to the market with the same series of steps: First the industry capitalizes on the direct to consumer advertising laws that are only legal in the United States and Australia. With direct consumer advertising you often see drug companies creating a need for a drug by going as far as CREATING a diagnosable disease. Turn on your TV most any day and you’ll see drugs being hustled for virtually everything ranging from restless feet to restless eyes.
Feeling old? Take testosterone gel. Feeling like an under performer? Try Viagra. Feeling sad mad or overly glad? Pop a pink pill or two. The FIRST step for any accomplished drug hustler is to create the need with an endless advertising blitz. Most of the time the story doesn’t end well for consumers who are told that they are too stressed too fat too sad or too sleep deprived.
Step TWO for the drug hustlers is to promise a dysfunctional FDA that the clinical trials conducted with their magic pill, wonder drug are truthful and accurate. They have to tell the FDA that the need for their new drug is so overwhelming that there is no time to delay… Consumers need their drugs NOW. Because of that rush to the market mentality the FDA almost daily allows phonied up clinical trials and lack of testing to become the norm with drug safety oversight.
And if someone inside the FDA actually shows some honesty by asking tough questions the drug industry unleashes their holy war on that individual simply by calling a few trick monkey Congressman to hammer the troublemaker. The same holds true with doctors who become critics after they finally realize that the new wonder drug is killing their patients. They see their hospital privileges revoked. They often are aggressively harassed, embarrassed, and discredited by their peers who are owned and operated by the drug industry.
Feeling old? Take testosterone gel. Feeling like an under performer? Try Viagra. Feeling sad mad or overly glad? Pop a pink pill or two. The FIRST step for any accomplished drug hustler is to create the need with an endless advertising blitz. Most of the time the story doesn’t end well for consumers who are told that they are too stressed too fat too sad or too sleep deprived.
Step TWO for the drug hustlers is to promise a dysfunctional FDA that the clinical trials conducted with their magic pill, wonder drug are truthful and accurate. They have to tell the FDA that the need for their new drug is so overwhelming that there is no time to delay… Consumers need their drugs NOW. Because of that rush to the market mentality the FDA almost daily allows phonied up clinical trials and lack of testing to become the norm with drug safety oversight.
And if someone inside the FDA actually shows some honesty by asking tough questions the drug industry unleashes their holy war on that individual simply by calling a few trick monkey Congressman to hammer the troublemaker. The same holds true with doctors who become critics after they finally realize that the new wonder drug is killing their patients. They see their hospital privileges revoked. They often are aggressively harassed, embarrassed, and discredited by their peers who are owned and operated by the drug industry.
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