I work in Industrial Construction. We are strictly regulated by the government through OSHA. This industry is built around safety. That is because OSHA is so strict that if a company has too many incidents they will go out of business. They will not get work and not be allowed in refineries. Safety is all I hear about from morning to night. How is it the government can be so stringent on our industry regarding safety at the workplace when the same government allows poisonous crap like Propecia to be fed to innocent people? I mean if a simple construction company who is out to make money can be so invested in the safety of its workers, why doesn’t a company like Merck have the same culture? We are all out to make money. But how does a company who areas itself on promoting health get away with murder and decimating people’s lives with impunity? If my company were found being so negligent we would never work again, be fined unbelievably from the government, sued for all its worth etc. Which is the way it should be TO PROTECT PEOPLE. You don’t need to endanger life to turn a profit. I cannot seem to fathom the great inequality I see with the zero tolerance safety standards most industries in general are held to versus the slap on the wrist attitude towards big Pharma. Are these guys untouchable? Are they so smart and benevolent that they get a free pass to ruin lives for the sake of money? I have only seen this in movies and never expected to see such things in this world. I was naive. Every morning at our daily safety meeting I hear that nothing is more important than to come home safely from your work. Now I say if a simple construction contractor can adhere so stringently to protecting life and ensuring safety, why can’t a drug company have the same mentality? You would think it would be a given that they are in the business of “creating better health”. But these ruthless mothers at Merck do not care for human life. And they are allowed to kill 50,000 people etc. If my company killed 50,000 welders and craftsmen on the job we would be on the chopping block and would be done for. Also we would be on every news station in the country. Sorry I just can’t believe it.
i certainly didnt think for one second that something like this could happen in this day and age,i totally trusted the system,i foolishly thought that if its prescribed by my doc then it must have been through every possible safety test etc,im very wary of any medication now,i used to work in industrial construction myself and i know how strict safety etc is,i think this is the main reason why at the time i wasnt concerned about any possible side effects and was thinking to myself well this is england,everything is so strict here on safety issues etc it must be safe,you would think the governments would fine them so hard when something like this happens they would not dare let it happen again for fear of going bust just like construction companies and others do,the big pharma companies seem to do what they want and just weigh up any future law suits against their profit margins,in other words they think fuck it we can afford to pay out 20% of our profits on law suits and still make a big pile of cash,who gives a fuck…
Excellent posts guys. I fell into the same trap. Being used to safety rules myself, i never thought the pharma industry could be like this. But there is another problem. It is not that Merck failed to test the medication. It is much worse. They published false information. Before taking the medication, i read all the safety data. The 2% plus “all the sides go away”… The “propecia does not affect the HPT axis” bs. And they knew it.
So it is much much worse. We are not talking about mistakes. We are talking about crime.
At first, knowing that it was a fairly new medication, i was scared to take it. But the false data made me go for it.