I just wanted to mention that this is not the first time Merck has absolutely destroyed peoples lives.
Do some research on VIOXX and Gardasil and you will learn a lot more horror stories.
Its absolutely devastating what this company has done and continues to do.
The Merck Vioxx case is fairly well known
msnbc.msn.com/id/6192603/ns/health-arthritis/t/report-vioxx-linked-thousands-deaths/#.TptshGDsvpU
nytimes.com/2004/11/14/business/14merck.html
Given that Merck were allowed to get away with killing thousands of people. We have no chance of ever getting to them in my opinion. Those scum bags are allowed to take away a man’s sexuality, virility, motivation, confidence, overall desire for life - pretty much everything that keeps a human ticking and walk away without consequences. I would of rather been a vioxx death statistic.
The article above pretty much sums up how evil the pharmaceutical industry can be. Don’t get me wrong, we need drugs for ill people. They save lives and give people a quality of life, which they would never have without the use of drugs. However, you always have to remember that the pharmaceutical industry is a monopoly and money rules. I just wish i knew all of this before i ordered generic finasteride to try and stop myself from going bald for a couple of years.
I read about about gardasil, i didn’t know about it. it seems pretty nasty.
Practionnners are really to blame as much as pharma companies.
who in is right mind, after 9 years of medecine, knowing all the possible consequences on health of an hormonal change can prescribe
that to young men?
There’s a book that was written about the Vioxx case and all of the sleezy unethical things that Merck did to avoid the damages of a class suit. “All the money that Justice can Buy” Martin turned me onto this book. I have yet to read, but it’s probably a good idea for those of us that intend to be part of the class suit against this company. The Vioxx victims prevailed in the suit, but the amount they rocovered for lost lives is pathetic.
The book has very good ratings so I am planning on buying it.
I know jury’s are often sought out that have no prior knowledge of a company’s history in a situation like this. Obvioulsy they are looking for someone that will not factor in a prior case such as Vioxx in this situation. It will be interesting to see if that plays a role here. I would use the ananolgy of a serial killer or a habitual thief. Of course the prior case has relevance as it shows it’s not an isolated incident.
Bear in mind joe 91, merck paid out 4.85 billion dollars as a result of vioxx. They did not loose in court the eventually “cracked”. So getting to them, as you say, with thier history, is not an unachieveable goal.
According to this new release Merck is supposed to self regulate via an internal review board to prevent another VIOXX disaster:
reuters.com/article/2010/02/10/us-merck-idUSTRE61937E20100210
Doesn’t look like they are living up to that agreement…not a big surprise, but it seems they are violating the agreement…
Pharmaceutical companies should be nationalised, so they create drugs for human health and not for share value. There is a massive conflict in interest in having drug companies operating for profit rather than the greater human good. This is medicine we are talking about not cola or computers.
I’m not saying there wouldn’t be mistakes made if drug companies were not run for shareholder profits, but we sure as hell wouldn’t see dangerous products like propecia thrust on the market for cosmetic purposes.
We would likely then also have drug regulatory authorities that would act promptly when confronted by post marketing problems, not be massively in hoc to and terrified of billion dollar pharmaceutical corporations.
These companies cannot effectively self-regulate. Their primary goal is maximizing shareholder value (ie make money). This is an inherent conflict of interest, to profit from a product that the company itself evaluates for safety.
These companies have to have the monetary incentive to develop the drugs. Lets not forget that most drugs are developed with the intent on saving lives. I’m not for drug companies being nationalized or non profit. I believe that it would take advances in healthcare backwards.
I’ve said this before - We got the ultimate torture in terms of being completely healthy and being tricked by creative marketing into taking a powerful drug that was labeled as being very benign. And for the sake of cosmetic reasons, not to treat a health problem.
Proscar was labeled as benign because men in their 50s and 60s (who were starting to experience ED etc. anyways) and who’s main concern was being able to take a piss.
Then Merck saw Proscar had the side effect of reversing alopecia and decided to make more money (remember, these are MBAs not scientists making these decisions) and thus created the 1mg pill called Propecia (which is essentially the same thing as Proscar, they’re both finasteride)
Im not surprised that Merck tried to further capitalize on the invention of one drug for two purposes. What shocks me though, is how the FDA approved Propecia for young mean to treat allopecia ( a purely cosmetic purpose).
Merck is a business with a history of scamming. I’m just shocked at how the FDA is still being duped by Merck for Propecia and Gardasil… Unless Merck and other big pharma companies basically own the FDS now. This is sort of like how the SEC failed to catch Bernie Madoff despite repetitive warnings of fraud.
An interesting read: washingtonpost.com/politics/perry-has-deep-financial-ties-to-maker-of-hpv-vaccine/2011/09/13/gIQAVKKqPK_story.html
Our potential future president Rick Perry (financially backed by Merck) wants all young women to take the HPV vaccine “for safety”. A vaccine thats caused things like…well like this… youtube.com/watch?v=0gCVCP8BFrU
I think it’d be interesting to create three sites:
Propecia-help.com, Vioxx-help.com, and Gardasil-help.com
And merge them into and Anti-merck mega website seriously. That way we can get more power in numbers from people suffering being of one company (…two including the FDA).
Mew, I believe you created this site? Any idea how that may happen?
Notice the caption for the youtube video about Brittney:
Brittney gives an emotionally charged overview of what her life has been like for the past two years. She struggles daily with the fact her life has been forever changed. A doctor frightened her into taking the Gardasil vaccine by telling her she could get an HPV through a “possible” lab accident at college - where her blood could mingle with someone elses who had an HPV. She was never told HPV’s are sexually transmitted deseases. and having no other information, she allowed herself to be given a vaccine she never needed. Now she wishes the TRUTH to be told - more testing of this vaccine is warranted before another young woman is injured…
Which makes me believe her doctor is getting something out of administering Gardasil vaccines. Whether its a higher salary, nice vacations to hawaii with wonderful food, with lots of Merck pens and merchandise.
If there’s something to be made of this, I believe that we should create Vioxx-help and Gardasil-help sites in order to bring more attention to Merck’s (and the FDA’s corruption).
All the videos to do with big pharma barely have any views. The general public don’t really care. How sad.
Because it doesn’t affect their daily lives. Before this incident it didn’t affect my life either and I was completely oblivious to all the pharmaceutical scandals, lies, etc.
Thought I’d update the list.
Vioxx - heart attacks, death
Gardasil - autism, various disabilities, death
Propecia/Proscar - permanent ED, cognitive issues
Flosamax - necrotic jaws
3/4 of these drugs are still on the market…