Big Pharma still in control, no matter who our president is

Big Pharma still as big a threat as ever

Yes, there’s about to be a changing of the guard in Washington — but that doesn’t mean we can let our guard down for one minute.

That’s because the stranglehold Big Pharma has on the FDA will remain as strong as ever.

If you’ve ever wondered how the FDA manages to get away with some of its dirty dealings, know that this agency is the largest and most powerful of all our federal regulatory bodies.

It can stop commerce in its tracks, even swoop down and confiscate practically anything it wants to. And should the FDA want even more power – why, it just reaches out and takes it.

And it counts among its best friends, none other than the drug companies that we’re told it regulates.

Partners in crime

Over the decades some brave FDA employees have tried to sound the alarm about how cozy the agency is with drugmakers, and how that puts Americans in danger.

But any FDA employee who tries to warn us about this most powerful bureaucracy of all is likely to end up being “treated worse than a criminal.”

The man who said that was an FDA scientist by the name of Dr. Leo Lutwak.

Dr. Lutwak was part of a group of agency employees who tried to stop the approval of Rezulin, a drug for type 2 diabetes back in 1997. Scientists at the agency said the drug was just too dangerous, and that it was obvious it would kill if approved.

It was, and it did. By the time Rezulin was taken off the market, close to 400 people were dead because of it. And in an all-to-often case of politics over science, it was later revealed that a top FDA official said he would “ease out” any employee who attempted to reveal their doubts about the drug’s safety studies.

A little over 16 years ago, the same story repeated itself with a med for IBS called Lotronex.

Dedicated scientists tried, to no avail, to stop its approval. And by the next year GlaxoSmithKline was forced to yank it off the market after it caused horrific side effects, including severe bowel and colon damage, and several deaths.

But soon after, the FDA teamed up with GSK to bring Lotronex back, even going so far as to devote a department in the agency (with staff) so the drugmaker could answer media questions! The editor of The Lancet, called the episode one that reveals how the FDA is a “servant of industry.”

I could tell you similar stories all day long. But what they would all reveal is that it doesn’t matter whether our president is a Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative or anything in-between, the FDA still writes its own ticket.

And its powers not only extend to drugs, but bottled water, foods and food additives, infant formulas, dietary supplements, vaccines, medical devices, microwave ovens, sunlamps, cosmetics, pet foods, livestock feed, and on and on and on.

On top of all that, decades ago the agency (to the delight of Big Pharma) took over control of drug advertising from the Federal Trade Commission.

Drugmakers also lobbied heavily for a bill to grant the FDA expanded powers of inspection. That alone tells us a lot about the agency’s cozy relationship with industry.

And last, but certainly not least, the FDA has been trying to control our dietary supplements for a long, long time. And if not for the protest of outraged Americans over the years, it would have succeeded ages ago.

The bottom line is that the FDA’s unofficial partnership with Big Pharma makes this legal drug cartel still as big a threat as ever.

That’s why we must stay diligent, and realize how much is at stake.