Corporate Conspiracies by Richard Belzer

Author:Richard Belzer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2017-04-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX:

BIG PHARMA: “SIDE EFFECTS” (SUCH AS ROBIN WILLIAMS’S SUICIDE) MAY VARY

What would you say if you knew someone had killed 60,000 people? Would you call it a felony of the worst kind, times 60,000? If you totaled up the value of all those lives in criminal court, what would you say they’re worth? Billions? Trillions? Or—how about a measly $321 million in exchange for a guilty plea to a misdemeanor? When you consider that this involves the second-largest drug maker in the US—Merck—and its deadly drug Vioxx, then you’ll probably agree that a misdemeanor and a 321-million-dollar fine amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.1

—Dr. Joseph Mercola

Here’s a news flash for you:

Robin Williams was murdered.

That’s right. That’s what happened, in our opinion—and in the opinions of many others too.2 But he wasn’t murdered by a thief in the night that killed him and made it look like a suicide. He was murdered by a system in which multi-billion-dollar corporate conglomerates disguise the fact that their drugs kill many thousands of people every single year. Could his prescription drugs have been the cause of his sudden increased paranoia that drove him to take his own life? That is probably what actually did happen to the great comedian and actor Robin Williams. That’s why those huge drug companies spend fortunes on public relations to make it appear that they are not technically responsible for those tragedies.3 But you sure as hell won’t see that on the nightly news because, as you’ve probably noticed, Big Pharma commercials are their biggest corporate sponsors. We will show you the exact details of that case in just a minute. But first, a bit of history.

The known evils of the pharmaceutical industry are almost too numerous to mention. And when it comes to corrupted ethics, Big Pharma is evil “on steroids.” They engage in activities that, for us, would be criminal. For them, it’s just business as usual. “Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, operates 151 subsidiaries in tax havens and officially holds $74 billion in profits offshore for tax purposes, the fourth highest among the Fortune 500.”4 If you do that, it’s tax evasion and the IRS will come after you. When they do it, it’s politically protected profit enhancement.

The drug business is the most profitable in the entire world of capitalism.5 Total pharmaceutical revenue worldwide has now reached over one trillion US dollars per year.6

US consumers are so price-gouged by pharmaceutical corporations that a well-known cancer drug costs $159 to produce and distribute a one-year supply. But in the UK, people are charged $30,000 and in the US, individuals must pay $106,000 for the same one-year supply.”7

Large pharmaceutical firms spend hundreds of millions of dollars on political operations every year.8 That’s why they have so much clout on Capitol Hill—they buy it. That’s how they get their tax breaks. That’s how they keep a revolving door between Big Pharma and government agencies that are supposed to be watching out for consumers.9

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