I find it highly unbearable that Eli Lilly threw my son’s life away based on lies and a cost-benefit analysis. I’ve seen their budgets - a little line item to pay off (mostly a very measly amount) family members killed by their drugs.

I would like to see a tasteful Vermont-granite or marble sculpture placed in a prominent place in the heart of Washington with a plaque to all the thousands upon thousands of people killed knowingly by prescription drugs. A little consciousness-raising to government and industry - both out of control, and for families - a recognition of their family members’ deaths, all hidden from view, and a place to grieve.

Most times I post, there isn’t even a response….oh no, don’t want to talk about THAT.

I’ll end by saying that there is NO PLACE in this buisness for lying and covering up data.

I think that’s a formulation a lot of us, insiders and outsiders, could live with well. Definitional issues remain, but that is certainly the core.

Truthman,
This is not entirely evil. Take seatbelts as an example. Have you heard about seatbelts that have killed people? I have. (car into a lake, can’t get seatbelt off) Airbags have killed many, many people. But as a society we accept these inventions. Why? Because the save far, far more lives than they hurt.

I’m not saying that all pharmaceuticals fall into this category. But many do. There is a “cost benifit” analysis that is take by society — and there is a similar “cost benifit” analysis taken by companies.

I’ll end by saying that there is NO PLACE in this buisness for lying and covering up data. That is not part of a “cost benifit” analysis that I’m talking about. Deception is wrong. Cost-benifit analysis is just fine when it’s conducted in the open. The FDA has to make these kind of calculations all the time.

Trade secrets may be ok for safeguarding a recipe for apple pie , but when pharma uses it to safeguard its profits as patients die from defective drugs then it is a pathetic and cowardly excuse…

I think this is standard practice now for Pharma…
They know that even if a drug is defective and shows signs of dangerous side effects in clinical trials , they can suppress that information and deny it for the lifetime of the drug…
They make their billions and pay out a percentage to the inevitable lawsuits which follow decades later later..
What a sick and twisted business model…

Had a terrific student who graduated last year. She already had a job with Lilly. She was afraid to read the Zyprexa stuff when it first came out because of what it might say about where she was heading.

This kid is the salt of the earth. Whatever else would be, people like her are certainly part of the solution.

http://www.thetrenchcoat.com/categories/27-William-Freund
http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2005/11/02/teen-with-aspergers-shoots-neighbors-self.htm

A recent case in White Lake Township, Michigan, Mark Ott, being treated for bipolar, just killed his parents out of the blue. No specific drug mentioned but who has bipolar and is not on an anti-psychotic? Unfortunately, there is so much of this going on that will never see the light of day. Media will report these horrific murder/suicides and blame it on guns (much like blaming drunk driving on cars) but Mark Ott used a knife so we probably should ban those too.

Unfortunately nobody gets paid to document or collect up any of these accounts so about the time somebody on an anti-psychotic is doing a major murder/suicide once a week is about the time it will sink into public consciousness. We are just about ready to accept the role anti-depressants play in these murder/suicides but by the time we do, big pharma will have kids all switched over to anti-psychotics and be good for another 10-20 year run of pulling the wool over the public eye.