Bribery, Fraud and Corruption Charges Against Big PharmaCatherine J. Frompovich It is the opinion of this writer that Big Pharmas corporate largess is too tempting to resist by federal government agencies, and fines work nicely. Pharmas lobbyists spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year contributing to congressional campaign coffers, which should be outlawed because it is nothing short of briberyplain and simple. Obviously, a member of Congress will champion a cause or is morally obligated to do so for the money Pharmas lobbyists freely hand out. [3] That being said, lets change gears and consider only a fraction of apparent crimes and misdemeanors Big Pharma and/or its personnel allegedly have perpetrated. Some have resulted in fines while others if not many slid under the wire or evaded the radar screen. One in that particular category, which comes to mind, is the inclusion of the SV-40 cancer-causing virus in the polio vaccine until about the early 1970s. Here and here are two articles about viruses in vaccines, which should have been prosecuted under the category crimes against humanity. How come? Well, when federal and state health agencies mandate that children be given vaccines that undoubtedly are not safe nor proven to not contain viruses or mycoplasma that cause diseases down the line, then both Big Pharma and government agency personnel ought to be prosecuted, in my opinion. Maybe wed have safer vaccines? Another equally questionable and seemingly non-prosecutable crime to date is the apparent research fraud perpetrated by Dr. Poul Thorsen, whom the U.S. CDC apparently cannot find to prosecute regarding fraud and embezzlement and the Danish vaccine-autism studies. Here are a few articles that lay out that serious fraud, which the CDC apparently still stands behind and accepts Thorsens findingsouch! not to mention billion dollar liabilities for fraudulent marketing practices in the U.S. So, how can U.S. patients, i.e., healthcare consumers, trust or believe in all the pharmaceuticals their physicians so freely prescribe, apparently at the behest of Pharma representatives? Ever go to a doctors office and see a Pharma rep with his/her suitcases filled with samples waiting patiently to be squeezed into doctors busy patient schedule? Erica Kelton, who wrote that Forbes article, said pharmaceutical companies continue to pay record criminal and civil fines in the U.S. for illegal marketing practices. Theres a key word in that remark: fines! As long as Big Pharma can make billions of dollars in sales annually, it can continue its illegal marketing practices because the feds will get their fair share of the profits from pharmaceutical sales, I contend. Both should be considered criminal activity on the part of federal government agencies and Big Pharma because Pharma continues to do the same thing again and again, only to be fined again and again. Can readers perceive the apparent profit cycle, especially at your expense both health-wise and monetarily? Regarding bribery, Kelton states: Pfizer, the worlds largest drugmaker, paid $60.2 million last month [August 2012] to the U.S. to settle charges that the company bribed government officials including hospital administrators, government doctors and members of regulatory and purchasing committees in China, Russia, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Kazakhstan to approve and prescribe Pfizer products. See how a round-robin cycle apparently works! And, ostensibly, its an ongoing thing. Reuters reported on May 14, 2014 that 4-Chinese police charge British former head of GSK in China with bribery. Also that Other large international drugs manufacturers including Novartis AG, AstraZeneca Plc, Sanofi SA , Eli Lilly Co and Bayer AG were also visited by Chinese officials in 2013 as part of a broad investigation into the business. What is it that everyone doesnt seem to be getting about Big Pharma that they get about other criminals such as sex offenders, i.e., when you do the crime, you pay the time. Sex offenders prey on relatively few victims as compared to the millions that Big Pharmas fraud and deceit impact. Obviously, Big Pharma has not been playing by the rulesotherwise, why the fines, yet we entrust them to make the medicines that supposedly make us wellor is that a sham too? How can we trust them, if they are dishonest with regard to some business practices? Furthermore, Erica Kelton points out that in 2009 Pfizer paid $2.3 billion for improper and illegal marketing of certain prescription drugs in the U.S. Seemingly, Big Pharma is not prosecutable for crimesonly fineswhich appear to be a cash cow for the U.S. Treasury. How about all the taxes the U.S. collects on each vaccine sold along with apparently holding patents on some vaccines? Caching, caching goes the cash register. Can that be a reason for mandating more and more vaccines be injected into more and more people from birth to very old age? Should we follow the money? as they say. Are pharmaceutical crimes not prosecuted and people-perpetrators not sent to prison so that Big Pharma can create more revenue for the U.S. treasury? Is that why the pharmaceutical industry apparently can do whatever it wants, and as often as it wants, as long as it can pony up fine money? It seems that is a never-ending, fine-generating-cycle that has become engrained in the pharmaceutical culturebusiness as usual. Most often healthcare consumers wind up being at risk; note class action lawsuits. Still, Congress nor the U.S. CDC or FDA do nothing to close down operations or prosecute Pharma executives with prison time. When will that stop? Probably when healthcare consumers finally realize how theyve been taken for a sleigh ride about pharmaceuticals and vaccines, I contend. To further elucidate and attest to my statements above about criminal cycles and cash cows, Kelton notes several fines Big Pharma paid. GlaxoSmithKline paid $3 billion in July [2012] which was the largest healthcare settlement ever as well as $237 million in 2008 to settle two separate cases. Bristol-Myers paid $389 million in 2008. AstraZeneca paid $520 million in 2010 and $266 million in 2003. [1] In another Forbes article Is Big Pharma Addicted to Fraud? Kelton states that GlaxoSmithKline paid $750 million in 2009 to resolve civil and criminal charges. [2] Furthermore, Eli Lilly Co. paid $29.4 million to settle allegations that they had bribed government officials and others in China. One law firm Katz, Marshall and Banks, LLP advertises as a law firm representing Pharmaceutical Industry Whistleblowers. Heres the question this writer has to ask about whistleblowers: Where are they at the CDC and FDA? Probably the most comprehensive overview of the criminality factor within Big Pharma is found in the Health Ranger, Mike Adamss 2012 article Big Pharma Criminality in Vaccines, but still nothing changes! This writer has come to a sad conclusion that nothing probably ever will change because pharmaceutical criminality truly IS cost effective behavior as far as the U.S. federal government is concernedjust pay the fines. Now that everyone ought to realize whats apparently going on, the obvious solution to the problem seemingly lies with consumers who must re-educate themselves away from believing all the advertising bunk thats been bullied into them by TV ads, public service announcements, and even the family doctor, who should know better. Family physicians should be the very ones to stand up, blow the whistle and say this is not correct, as Dr. Oz did in his recent TV show regarding heavy metals found in organic foods that he has recommended to his patients. Applause, applause, applause! Dr. Ozs oft-repeated question during that show was to ask why FDA didnt find what Mike Adams and his Forensic Food Lab found. This writer ventures to say that FDA really doesnt give a hoot, especially when it can go after big fish money from Big Pharma something like an annuity as long as the U.S. consumer buys into the legal illegal activities that are carried out in the name of pharmaceutical science, which Big Pharma apparently gets away with. Notes: [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikakelton/2012/09/11/big-pharmas-offshore-fraud-strategy/ Resources: The New York Times / Glaxo Agrees to Pay $3 Billion in Fraud Settlement Natural News launches Labs reference website with heavy metals results for foods, organics, supplements and more Unacceptable Levels / A film about 80,000 chemicals in products on the market Patent Landscape Report on Vaccines for Selected Infectious Diseases, November 2011 Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies.Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting. Catherines latest book,published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Dont Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com. Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook. Two of Catherines more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into Whats Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process(2008). 