neil.burman@gmail.comUPDATE: see 14 June 2010. The Statin Scam Unravels.
Update: 6 May 2010: this week’s recall of Johnson and Johnson’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benadryl due to negligent contamination , in particular of Tylenol for children, leapfrogs America’s household favourite Johnson and Johnson J&J to 2nd place (with at least 6 bad drugs) in the fraudsters mafia roll of dishonour behind the unreachable leaders Pfizer with about a dozen notorious fraud drugs. What is another $81million fine to J&J that had sales of >$63billion in each of the last two years with profit of above 20%, and that despite the recall still maintained this turnover in quarterly sales for the 1st quarted this year?
The major thing is that despite J & J’s gross negligence endangering the lives of children, the FDA has taken no other action against them. They terrorize with armed marshalls for trivia and shut down small firms making safe health supplements and physicians using them, but the Big Pharma mafia are the darlings of the FDA and Government since they pay such vast amounts in fees and taxes to Govt and lobbyists- politicians and academicians- trialists – that they are untouchable in every country..
14 April 2010: So we can throw away the fraudulent Pfizer’s fraudulent Neurontin gabapentin we have been taking? when there never was evidence that it is as good and safe as it’s parent (our chief brain neurotransmitter aminoacid ) GABA; while it’s younger twin sister Lyrica – pregabalin– designed for extension of patent benefits – is worse … just like we can throw away the chronic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories eg Voltaren diclofenac , Vioxx and Celebrex that are such heart risks, poor painkillers, and do nothing for the underlying destructive chronic disease process. Drugs for massive profit for the beloved Big Pharma Industry that politicians go to endless lengths to protect.- even Obama and George Brown as witnessed by the multibillion dollar swine flu scam, even now in 2010 with Obama’s Pharmacare bill.
And now Harvard University shows that even Neurontin and lamotrigine increase the risk of suicide by42% and 81% respectively. So the long list of fraudulently overmarketed or hazardous -improperly registered or prescribed drugs without adequate trials or obligatory definite indications- grows.
And then there is the Disease Industry hypermarketing technique of Diseasemongering- promoting previously ignored or unrecognized variable human traits like anxiety, insomnia, lowgrade depression, mild hypercholesterolemia, female low sexual desire, erectile dysfunction, postural or stress backache- to diseases requiring permanent designer drug therapy eg benzos, viagras, prozacs, statins, NSAIDS nonsteroidal anti0inflammatories; or “corrective surgery” for all.
Pfizer, Bayer, GSK and Roche with the 100% support of their respective government regulators and politicians continue to vie for top place as the biggest fraudsters of all time – competing with the food, tobacco, booze, media, vehicle, financial, lawyer, minerals, fuel and politics industries..
Why is this? Because the public – taxpayers and the poorer consumers- are at their most vulnerable, pawns if not cannonfodder and guineapigs when it comes to trust in government regulators and the giant consumer product industries – manufacturers and big distributors- that Govts regulate – especially the disease and drug industries.
And government regulators are controlled by elected politicians who ( apart from a few altruistic successful honest folk who stand out and are nominated for or called to office -but not Ralph Nader) – as mostly lawyers or failed businessmen/ workers or carreer trade unionists, rarely seek higher office except to further their own financial interests and power lust.
Winston Churchill and Frank Rooseveldt vie with Margaret Sanger, Mahatma Ghandi and Nelson Mandela for honour as the leading persistent (western) fighter for justice, human rights of the 20th century if not all time, since they were skillful – brave but above all tough enough (unlike many heroic martyrs) to survive to see it through.
Hence there is enormous incentive for collusion between politician/ government officials who control the taxes and spending thereof, and the big businesses that control the big money that escapes the tax officials – including Big Pharma. In South Africa there is no incentive whatsoever for the MCC Medicines Control Council Regulator to work efficiently as all income it generates is absorbed by the Fiscus/Dept Health, which blatantly refuse to produces annual financials for the MCC – effectively a parastatal supposedly under an independent CEO and Board.
Below is a list of costly modern disaster or dubious largely chronic drugs and their manufacturers that earn the profound distrust of consumers: (where there are a proliferation of me-too analogues in a group eg benzos, statins, NSAIDS, bisphosphonates, only the original one or two are listed since they led/lead the pack):
PFIZER -Wyeth -Searle – Upjohn: Neurontin; Geodon, Bextra, Zyvox, Lyrica; Lipitor; Celebrex; PremPro; aspartame; Rezulin; Viagra; and Ativan=lorazepam/ Xanor=alprazolam – two of the most addictive chronic “anxiolytic” benzos – again, in Wiki and MIMS their indications are far fewer than the pages of problems they cause us since the 1970s , papering over and masking symptoms by numbing the mind (as with alcohol and smoking) instead of patients addressing the underlying cause of their anxieties with psychotherapy including learning self-hypnosis control.
Collectively, Pfizer (the conglomerate of rash clones it has swallowed) has as many modern disaster/fraud drugs as the next two combined of its major league fraud competitors:
Johnson & Johnson – Risperdal ; prepulsid; Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benadryl
Bayer – Trasyol; Yaz/min , Baycol, Paxil, Flonase, Cipro;
Astra-Zenca – I.C.I. – Seroquel, Nexium ; Crestor,Tenormin, Losec; and thalidomide..
Roche – Xenical, Roaccutane, Tamiflu; Valium. .
Glaxo-Smith-Kline GSK -swineflu vaccine; Avandia, Paroxetine.
Sanofi-Aventis (Hoechst-Rhone-Poulenc) – Actonel ; benzbromarone; swine flu vaccine; Cosaldon -Trental [Cosaldon R was an excellent peripheral vasodilator oxypentifylline plus vitamin E; then Hoechst subtly started downplaying Cosaldon R as it’s patent expired, and introduced the slightly phonetically changed and far more costly ‘new’ drug Trental pentoxyfylline.. Hoechst would naturally not explain (except obviously on grounds of profiteering from the new patent substitute) why they substituted an inferior “new” drug for the better older version which included the safe dose of vitamin E.]
Merck – Vioxx; Zocor, Fosamax; gardasil.
Eli Lilly – Prozac, Zyprexa; memantine ; and DES-diethylstilbestrol, perhaps the most infamous of all commercialized drugs in causing problems even in grandchildren of those so recklessly exposed to it without evidence of benefit. (Eli Lilly was the last company to stop manufacturing it – in 1997! despite evidence of it’s disasterous effects published in 1953, and of cancer from 1971 . )
Novartis -Ciba Geigy- Voltaren, swineflu vaccine.
Abbott labs– Meridia=Reductil
Biogenesis labs – Acomplia; rimonabant
Bristol-Myers Squibb -Pravastatin; Plavix, warfarin; And the sustained cover-up of the COSMIC metformin obligatory postmarketing trial done at the insistence of the FDA on a huge 9000 subjects for 1 year in about 1996/7. This trial was eventually submitted for publication only in 2004 and thus published in 2005- but for the previous year BMS and their licensor the original patent-holder Merck denied any knowledge of such a trial although the summary was presented and published a year earlier at a US diabetes congress by the authors, and we supplied the COSMIC abstract- written by BMS researchers who did the COSMIC trial- to BMS and Merck… . why would BMS and Merck delay publication of this trial for so many years, and blatantly deny knowledge of it after the first report of the trial result at a USA diabetes congress ?
The answer can only be the predicted- because it confirmed in the biggest metformn trial cohort ever- 8000 patient-years- that metformin in diabetics gave zero significant adverse drug effects, with the all-cause deathrate in fact 9% lower than in those on other conventional antidiabetic therapies; and four major diabetes prevention trials of metformin in four continents confirmed that it at least halves the incidence of new diabetes- with zero significant adverse effects; and in the intervening years between this trial and it’s result publication, both BMS and Merck developed and launched their respective combinations of metformin and a sulphonylurea (M + SU) . This despite the fact that it was clear since at least the 1970s that the addition of sulphonylurea to metformin is a desperate last resort since it is fraught with risk of hypoglycemia and reversal of the reduction in fatness produced by metformin alone.
A new retrospective study just published from the UK patient database confirms the folly known all along of combination of SU with metformin in that that over a mean of 4 years on therapy, the metformin+SU therapy reduced all-cause mortality by 23% compared to SU alone; while metformin alone compared to SU alone reduced mortality 1/3 more ie by 30% – with trivial risk of hypoglycemia. This was similar to the outcome in the 20year UKPDS RCT, where metformin reduced all-cause mortality by 36% over a mean of 13 years, making it the safest and most effective drug ever patented for chronic degenerative disease. .
And note the cynical folly of the many manufacturers of the grossly overpromoted and overprescribed bisphosphonates and statins – which have numerous serious adverse effects and should be last-ditch therapy in metastatic bone cancer and in rare serious hyperlipidemia, not for osteoporosis, not for mild to moderate lipidemia and certainly not over-the-counter as profiteers crave.
ENDURINGLY BENEFICIAL MODERN CHRONIC DRUGS:
The above drugs contrast with vey few modern chronic designer drugs that are still the leaders in their fields, whether as original or generic – although none of them has been shown to address all-cause mortality and pathogenesis.
Pfizer’s Norvasc=amlodipine is a rare modern designer exception – dating from the late 1980s, it’s patent has only just run out- proving it’s enduring worth for longterm hypertension therapy as the premier 4th-line drug to add when reserpine 0.125mg plus amiloretic 1/2 (ie HCT 25mg + amiloride 2.5mg) daily are inadequate for optimal control; with very low risk of serious adverse effects.
BMS’ Captopril & Merck‘s Renitec – angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors ACEI – date from the mid-late ’70s, and while they were and are the first of the invaluable ACEI inhibitors, 5th line antihypertensive drugs for common use, they have formidable potential for lifethreatening adverse effects- but they are on essential drug lists. In the past dozen years big pharma has attempted to substitute angiotensin 11 receptor blockers ARBs, for the aging ACEI, but a recent metanalysis shows that neither group of drugs significantly lowers fatal or nonfatal cardiovascular events- and they all (unlike reserpine + coamiloretic + amlodipine) have risk of life-threatening adverse effects.
DRUGS FROM THE GOLDEN AGE:
Virtually all other current designer drugs of enduring and safe worth for chronic longterm use originated from the golden era of innovative and enduring designer drugs mostly around WW2 up to the 1960s:
The modern birth control OC pill taken chronically by millions of women for up to decades for either contraception or symptom control, certainly dates enduringly and endearingly from the post war Golden Era as Estinyl (Schering 1930s) , with or alternatively just a progestin. Modern preparations are relatively so safe that they are the preferred contaceptives for millions of young women. But we have just seen two young women unwisely started on Bayer-Schering’s Yaz/Yasmin develop in one case hypertension and major weight gain, the other hives- so such innovations are not necessarily better than established brands of OC .
MSD’s 40year old Sinemet still the firstline gold standard for Parkinsons; Moduretic- amiloretic/ amilozide- still the first drug and permanent baseline (in low dose eg half tab3 x a week or 1/4 – 1/2 a day) for hypertension; Epilim valproic acid for epilepsy; Tryptanol;
Sanofi-Aventis Hoecht’s Lasix furosemide still the leading diuretic for chronic severe heart failure, cirrhosis, nephrosis.
Merck’s 80yr old metformin- the only laboratory – originated drug (a teak of the galega plant’s biguanide) that reduces all-cause mortality – by no less than 36%, without a single serious adverse effect or mortality if sensibly used;
Bayer’s Adalat; Aspirin (1899) ; prednisone;
Novartis-Ciba-Geigy– Imipramine-Tofranil the first successful commercialise and still enduring major antidepressant.
Roche’s Rivotril;
Abbott-Knoll Isoptin;
GSK’s Zyloprim; Imuran; Panado- still the lead patent mild-moderate painkiller, safe at prescribed dose.
Pfizer -GDSearle’s Aldactone; Sulfasalazine; and the 100year old phenytoin -Dilantin, still a longterm lifesaving antiepileptic despite occasional major adverse effects.
Boot’s Brufen- the NSAID nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug on Essential Drug Lists, altho there is no evidence that this group of drugs is essenntial since they do not alter the course of the underlying chronic inflammatory disease or reduce longterm mortality and morbidity, are little if at all better than Panado+- codeine as painkillers, and have formidable risks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibuprofen#History
Astra-Zenca-ICIs Inderal was the first of the major new cardiovascular protectant beta-blockers which are essential drugs., altho all have formidable potential adversity ; as with ACEI, no special optimal favourite has yet emerged; they have some special chronic indicatiions, including heart conditions and special cases of hypertension. .
THE BIG PHARMA RAINCHECK MONEYSPINNERS:
The US drug industry is reputedly worth >$100billion a year and the biggest industry to >$200billion; and globally some $643 billion, of which the United States produces almost half. The gross industrial output in USA was apparently about $26 thousand billion in 2008 ie the drug inductry alone approaches 8% of total gross manufacturing output there.
It is surely no co-incidence that virtually all the above common fraud-drug pharmacy companies are among the dozen top money-spinners listed on 2009 financials.. But perhaps the biggest racketeering of modern times has yet to be quantified, perhaps $100 billion of wasted money on last year’s swine flu “pandemic” that never happened, in futile mass screening lab tests and vaccines and Tamiflu – giving massive profits (some companies claimed >$6billion) with total indemnity against litigation to Roche, GSK, Novartis, Baxter, Sanofi et al.. The USA-dominated WHO hastily changed the core definition of pandemic early in the North American outbreak so it could declare the nonsensical pandemic to suit the pockets of the profiteering American-European conglomerate and the political lobbyists they employ in Government and beaurocracy…
So do we wonder why we can’t trust Big Pharma prescription drugs and doctors’ judgment? Read the stats of a 5years study of the relevant risks, of deaths from prescription drugs in USA ( versus natural supplements) exceeding over 106 000 to 1. Thats why Big Pharma and it’s “regulators” like the US Govt FDA, the UK MCC, European medicines Authority EMA, and organized doctors, are so desperate to stop the public buying the supplements people choose- when early and permanent use of balanced natural supplements at least halve serious disease and thus medical consultations, prescription drug use and hospitalization. For profit, only disease (not prevention) pays.
Of the 103 drugs that achieved $billion sales in 2006,: considering the chronic disease drugs, only valproate and J & J’s contraceptive dates back to the 1980s; Wyeth’s Premarin-Prempro dates back to 1995; and (omiting duplicate entries) only 33 were oral drugs for chronic major common degenerative (as opposed to infective or malignant or autoimmune ) diseases. And of the ~33 , only 10 (in descending order of sales value on that list) even vaguesly justified their ranking and sales- amlodipine, venlafaxine, bupropion, metoprolol, Viagra ,carvedilol, valproate, ramipril, paroxitine and premarin-
Reuter’s forecast of the 10 >$5billion raincheques for 2010 include in descending rank for common chronic diseases only the tablets Lipitor, Plavix, Diovan and Crestor- none of which are proven essential drugs for common average disease use. They are there solely because of heavy marketing by Big Pharma, despite their mediocre results and major potential risks, with far better results given by long-proven natural supplements or by lowdose reserpine-amiloretic combination, then amlodipine .
Finally, landmark drugs that were not invented by, or were laregly ignored by, suppressed by drug companies as medicinals:
EDTA ethilenediaminetetraacetate was invented 80 years ago but never patented by Big Pharma as a medicine. Yet as an oral nutritional supplement in modest dose it is perfectly safe, and removes toxic lead, mercury, iron and many other heavy metals (now routinely polluting the environment -food and water- chain) from the body, as well as uric acid– being effective preventative against gout, and an antiatheroma agent. It is apparently not a scheduled medicine in either USA, UK or South Africa, being a routine ie harmless – beneficial- food additive preservative.
Yet despite the vast evidence favouring fish oil, metformin and EDTA as perfectly safe and effective chronic anticoagulation, the Disease Industry persists in promoting rat poison- warfarin, dicoumarol– as the common chronic anticoagulant, despite its’ proven risks of promoting hemorrhage, fractures – already known since at least 1998 , vascular calcinosis already known since 1998 and most recently published last month; and even cancer .
Metformin is unique, the widest multidisease panacea ever extracted (from a traditional antidiabetic plant) and patented. Like EDTA it was eventually identified in 1922 by university researchers Werner and Bell in Ireland – but only patented and produced for routine diabetic use since the 1950s- and deliberately obstructed for use in the USA for another 40 years by the FDA and Big Pharma, which were busy as bees designing and mass marketing far less safe and effective USA sulphonylureas although these were already discredited by the UGDP almost 50 years ago, when metformin was ‘rediscovered’ and came into its own.
Reserpine also a plant (rauwolfia) extract remains (with coamiloretic, amilozide) both in low dose the first-line drug treatment of all classes of hypertension– which since the prevalence of this disease now approachines 50 % in aging adults, makes these drugs amongst the most prevalent essential drugs needed. As even wiki says, from many major studies over decades, “Reserpine is one of the few antihypertensive medications that have been shown in randomized controlled trials to reduce mortality” – in at least a score conclusive trials of the individual components reserpine, thiazide and amiloride, the triple combination is by far the best firstline therapy, at a cost in South africa of about $US1 a month.. . But Big Pharma and its profiteer lobbyists continue to suppress the combination fraudulently based on decades-old overdosage data.
By contrast well over 100 natural micronutrient substances – cinnamon, garlic, ginger, codeine, reserpine, digoxin, huperzine A, galega-metformin and many other plant extracts; vitamins especially B,C,D in higher dose; , minerals especially calmag, zinc, chromium, boron, iodine, iron and even lithium; and human biologicals that deplete with aging like glucochondroitin, CoQ10, acetylcysteine, arginine, cartnitine , GABA, 5HTP and almost 20 other hormones replaced chronically – provide almost every chronic major degenerative disease with the best prevention and treatment, without the almost invariable risks of the modern designer chronic drugs discussed above.
Since alcohol and tobacco, salt and sugar are still freely sold over the counter OTC without any restrictions except some to children , the commonest causes of chronic degenerative disease in more than slightest daily usage, it is obviously lowdose vitamin K, vitamin C and D, lithium, magnesium, reserpine, metformin- galega and EDTA that should be mandatorily supplemented in the food chain for the fattening aging 1st-world populations, and allowed OTC purchase; while indications are severely limited for prescription of sulphonylureas, statins, bisphosphonates and the dozens of other disaster or dubious designer drugs listed above.
Healthspanlife - the Official Life! Blog 