7 Shameful Examples of Big Pharma Fraud July 2012

[Guest guest]

Dear all

Big Pharma Fraud has been a hot topic over the last few weeks with Merck

and Glaxo hitting the headlines.

I have managed to find a total of seven pharmaceutical industries facing

allegations of fraud.

I think you may find it is worth a read of this one to find out what is

really going on as if you were not already aware lol.

http://vactruth.com/2012/07/09/7-examples-pharma-fraud/

7 Shameful Examples of Big Pharma Fraud July 2012

By

England | July 9th, 2012 | Category:

England, Top

Stories |

3

comments

Pharmaceutical companies have a history of shameful

behavior.

Over the last few months many drugs companies have hit the headlines for

allegedly committing fraud, the most recent being Merck. This document

reveals 7 companies who have been reported for committing fraud since

January 2012.

Pharma Fraud Number 1: Merck

Recently Merck has been in the firing line for allegedly fraudulently

representing the mumps component of its MMR vaccine. It has been alleged

that Merck have been fraudulently informing the public that the MMR II,

used to replace the MMR vaccine Pluserix, is an effective vaccine when

this is not true because the studies proving the vaccines effectiveness

are said to be falsified.

According to many reports the Mumps component of the vaccination is

ineffective and that the results of the tests carried out on the vaccine

have been altered. The Child Health Safety website (1) reporting the

story states that whistleblowers working for Merck have said that they

witnessed fraud firsthand when they worked for the pharmaceutical

company, between 1999 and 2002, and that they were pressured to

participate.

Child Health Safety have reported that virologists A. Krahling

and Joan A. Wlochowski described a supervisor working for Merck manually

changing test results that showed the vaccine wasn’t working and then

hurriedly destroying the evidence to keep the fraud from being

exposed.

According to the report the whistleblowers stated that the supervisor

then lied to FDA regulators who came to the laboratories to check after

they were alerted to the problem. Child Health Safety wrote:

“A top Merck vaccine official told Krahling the matter was a “business

decision,” the suit says, and he was twice told the company would make

sure he went to jail if he told federal regulators the truth.”

(Possible) Pharma Fraud Number 2: Medical Imports Ltd

If this was not bad enough Merck’s behavior is said to have left

millions of children unprotected against mumps. Perhaps this is why there

was a sudden rush to approve the single mumps vaccine MediMumps for use

in private clincs. (2)

You may remember that a few weeks ago I reported that the MediMumps

vaccine was a single mumps vaccine being advertised by the Children’s

Immunization Clinic as a vaccine available from early June. Instead of

being cultured on chick embryo’s the MediMumps vaccine had been cultured

on dog kidney cells which was said to cause possible allergies to dogs in

young children.

Since my article I have learned that this vaccine did not have a UK

license when it was advertised. This was proven in an email I received

from a member of the public after she had raised the question with the

MHRA. The email from the MHRA customer services states:

“I understand that Medi-mumps is a registered trade mark belonging to

Medical Imports Ltd.

I can confirm that Medi-mumps is not the subject of a valid UK

Marketing Authorisation, nor is it the subject of a Marketing

Authorisation granted by the European Medicines Agency. (own

emphasis)”

It has also been established through telephone conversations that the

advert advertising the vaccine has been removed from The Children’s

Immunization Clinics website. My informant did ask if it was possible if

MediMumps was in fact Pavivac but her question were met with a stony

silence.

Did Medical Imports Ltd see trouble ahead for Merck and decide to go

ahead and allow an unlicensed product to be advertised to meet the

demands of thousands of potential parents looking for a single mumps

vaccine alternative to protect their children? Lets face it big pharma

never miss an opportunity to cash in where they see a possible gap in the

market do they?

If so, this is what could be classified as another possible act of fraud.

It certainly is a breach of advertising standards if nothing

else.

Incidentally, the MediMumps vaccine also contains the Jeryl Lynn strain

of mumps and is probably as useless as the mumps component in the MMR II

for protecting a child against mumps!

The last few months have not only seen cases of attempted fraud by Merck

and Medical Imports Ltd, many other companies have also come under

attack.

Pharma Fraud 3: GlaxoKIine

A few days ago GlaxoKline came under fire. BBC News (3) reported

that GlaxoKline (GSK) is to pay $3bn (£1.9bn) in the largest

healthcare fraud settlement in UShistory.

The BBC said:

“The drug giant is to plead guilty to promoting two drugs for

unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug

to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The settlement will cover criminal fines as well as civil settlements

with the federal and state governments.

The case concerns the drugs Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia.”

In my opinion it is about time this drugs company was brought to

justice. They have been in the headlines over the drug Paxil also known

as Seroxat many times. The truth about this evil drug can be found on the

blog Seroxat Sufferers Stand Up and Be Counted. (4) Bob Fiddaman displays

many papers identifying the tainted and rather colorful history of GSK

and the drug Paxil.

It may be worth mentioning at this point that GSK also manufacturers the

HPV vaccination Cervarix which has also has had problems. In a

promotional video (5) that I made with SaneVax a few years ago we exposed

a few Cervarix flaws that GSK had apparently forgotten to mention in

their 2008 advertising campaign for doctors.

Pharma Fraud 4: Roche

In June the pharmaceutical company Roche came under fire. Fierce

Pharma (6) reported that the European Medicines Agency is working with

national medicines agencies to investigate deficiencies in the

medicine-safety reporting system of Roche. According to the report this

includes looking at whether the deficiencies have an impact on the

overall benefit-risk profile for any of the products involved. Fierce

Pharma state:

“The deficiencies are identified in a May 2012 report from the UK

medicines regulatory agency (MHRA) following an inspection at Roche. This

was part of a coordinated European program of routine inspection of

safety reporting systems.

At the time of the inspection the company identified some 80,000 reports

for medicines marketed by Roche in the USA that had been collected

through a Roche-sponsored patient support program, but which had not been

evaluated to determine whether or not they should be reported as

suspected adverse reactions to the EU authorities. These included 15,161

reports of death of patients and it is not known whether the deaths were

due to natural progression of the disease or had a causal link to the

medicine. More recent information from the company indicates a smaller

number of reports, but this information needs to be verified by the

authorities!”

After 15,161 deaths you would think someone would bother to

investigate the drugs involved wouldn’t you? Whether it is negligence or

fraud this should have been checked and verified surely?

Pharma Fraud 5: Pfizer

Again in June we see another company come under fire. Pfizer, hit the

headlines for you guessed it for deceiving the public. According to

Recall Lawyers (7) an email circulated by a Pfizer research director

indicated that a study conducted to determine whether Celebrex an

arthritis drug was safer on the stomach than other drugs–such as

ibuprofen–was falsely represented. The website states:

“According to news reports, Celebrex is no better at protecting the

stomach from serious complications than other drugs. Pfizer and its

partner, Pharmacia, were able to misrepresent Celebrex as a safer

alternative because they only released the results of half of a yearlong

study. The email states, “[t]hey swallowed our story, hook, line and

sinker.”

Not such a great email after all, as the perpetrator has now been

exposed!

Recall Lawyers wrote:

“The email, sent in 2000, is among one of thousands of internal

documents recently unsealed. And while the company’s handling of Celebrex

has been known for years, since 2001 when the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) released the entire study, the unsealed documents

point to a widespread effort on the part of Pfizer to promote the drug in

ways not necessarily backed up by medical science, and to overcome the

doubts of critics. The study which formed the subject of the researcher’s

email was critical to Pfizer’s Celebrex campaign–Pfizer’s main selling

point of the drug was its mild effect on the stomach.”

I feel that the words ‘to promote the drug in ways not

necessarily backed up by medical science, speak volumes and that

this is practice is more widely spread than any of us could ever

imagine.

Pharma Fraud 6: Abbott Laboratories

In May of this year Abbott Laboratories pleaded guilty and agreed to

pay $1.5 billion for unlawfully promoting the prescription drug Depakote

for uses not approved safe and effective by the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA).

According to a press release from The United States Department of

Justice, (8) Abbott pleaded guilty on the 7th May 2012 to

misbranding Depakote by promoting the drug to control agitation and

aggression in elderly dementia patients and to treat schizophrenia when

neither of these uses was approved by the FDA.

The press release states:

“Abbott admits that from 1998 through 2006, the company maintained a

specialized sales force trained to market Depakote in nursing homes for

the control of agitation and aggression in elderly dementia patients,

despite the absence of credible scientific evidence that Depakote was

safe and effective for that use. In addition, from 2001

through 2006, the company marketed Depakote in combination with atypical

antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia, even after its clinical

trials failed to demonstrate that adding Depakote was any more effective

than an atypical antipsychotic alone for that use.”

I believe this to be a terrible act of fraud because it puts many

vulnerable elderly patients at risk. The FDA originally approved the drug

for epileptic seizures, bipolar mania and the prevention of migraines.

The press release clearly states that this drug was never approved for

controlling behavioral disturbances in dementia patients. This was

because the drug was found to be dangerous in elderly patients causing

some of them to suffer from dehydration and anorexia after using this

drug. This as we all know is extremely dangerous especially in the

elderly.

Pharma Fraud 7: Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Finally on my wall of shame is Takeda Pharmaceuticals. In March 2012

Ury & Moscow L.L.C. (9) stated that Takeda was in court for failing

to report that their diabetes drug Actos has been found to lead to

bladder cancer and congestive heart failure.

They wrote:

“Actos, which is manufactured by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, has been used

by thousands of patients in the U.S. to help treat diabetes. However,

after further studies revealed that the drug is linked to increasing

one’s risk of developing bladder cancer, thousands of claims have since

been filed against Takeda for failing to adequately warn consumers about

the dangerous side effects of its diabetes drug.”

Later in the report it says:

“According to the lawsuit, Takeda encouraged its medical reviewers to

incorrectly classify some of the reports of congestive heart failure.

Although some reports of the medical condition should have been

classified as serious adverse effects, Takeda asked those who initially

classified some of the reports as being serious to change their opinions,

the lawsuit claims. The former Takeda employee who filed the

whistle-blower lawsuit claims that she attempted to protest this

practice, but when she did, she was fired by the drugmaker.”

It is clear that Takeda along with all the other companies on my wall

of shame will do anything for financial gain, even putting vulnerable ill

and disabled patients at risk.

Looking back over the last year I found report after report proving that

pharmaceutical companies are lying, under reporting and covering up

crucial evidence in a bid to mislead the public into buying and using

dangerous drugs and vaccines. I suggest on the face of this evidence

alone next time your doctor offers you or your child a drug or vaccine

that you do your own research and weigh up all of the evidence because it

is clear the pharmaceutical industries are lying cheats out to make a

profit at any cost.

References

1. Child Health Safety Merck Vaccine Fraud –

2nd US Court Case Over MMR Vaccine

http://childhealthsafety.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/merck-vaccine-fraud-2nd-us-court-case-over-mmr-vaccine/

2. VacTruth New Vaccine Made From Dog Cells

May Trigger Allergies To Dogs

http://vactruth.com/2012/05/25/vaccine-dog-cells-allergy/

3. BBC News GlaxoKline to pay $3bn in USdrug fraud

scandal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18673220

4. Sexoxat Sufferers Stand Up And Be Counted

http://fiddaman.blogspot.co.uk/

5. YouTube Cervarix Vaccine GSK’s Promotional Flaws

6. Fierce Pharma European Medicines Agency acts on

deficiencies in Roche medicines-safety reporting

http://www.fiercepharma.com/press-releases/european-medicines-agency-acts-deficiencies-roche-medicines-safety-reportin

7. Recall Laywers Securities Fraud Case against

Pfizer shows Deception of Celebrex Safety

http://www.the-recall-lawyers.com/2012/06/securities-fraud-case-against.html

8. Press Release United States Department of

Justice Abbott Labs to Pay $1.5 Billion to Resolve Criminal & Civil

Investigations of Off-label Promotion of Depakote

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/May/12-civ-585.html

9. Ury & Moscow L.L.C Attorneys and Councilors

of Law EX-EMPLOYEE SAYS TAKEDA FAILED TO REPORT ADVERSE EFFECTS OF ACTOS

http://www.connecticutdangerousdrugsandinjurieslawyers.com/2012/03/ex-employee-says-takeda-failed-to-report-adverse-effects-of-actos.shtml

Photo Credit

England

England is a UK journalist and an author with a Higher National

Diploma in Journalism and Media. She is studying for a BA Hons degree in

English Literature and Humanities.

Besides being a regular contributor to Vactruth,com , writes

for the American Chronicle, the Weekly Blitz, and Namaste Publishing UK

on immunization safety and efficacy.

’s main area of expertise is in researching the areas

surrounding false allegations of child abuse particularly where a child

has suffered a vaccine injury. Her work is now read internationally and

has been translated into many languages. has been on many radio

shows and she speaks at seminars worldwide.

is the mother of two adult sons both with ASD and complex

learning and behaviour problems.

She is co-author of Shaken Baby Syndrome or Vaccine Induced Encephalitis

– Are Parents Being Falsely Accused?

Additionally, is a contributing author in The Voices of Autism

Voices of Autism: The Healing Companion: Stories for Courage, Comfort and

Strength.

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian

Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Washington State, USA

Vaccines -

http://vaccinationdangers.wordpress.com/ Homeopathy

http://homeopathycures.wordpress.com

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