Pharmaceutical companies used to modestly call themselves the “ethical pharmaceutical industry.” Their behavior in recent years is anything but………ethical.
GSK, one of the world’s largest healthcare and pharmaceuticals companies, admitted to promoting antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses, including treatment of children and adolescents.
And:
The company also conceded charges that it held back data and made unsupported safety claims over its diabetes drug Avandia.
It agreed to resolve civil liability for promoting asthma drug Advair and two lesser-known drugs for unapproved uses.
In addition, GSK has been found guilty of paying kickbacks to doctors.
Medicynical note: The industry has made an oxymoron of their conceit– the “ethical pharmaceutical industry.” They are part of our medical industrial complex which is money driven rather than patient care driven. Ethics? Appropriate use? Not our department.
How drugs are developed and marketed are part of what needs to change. I would never have imagined single medication priced at more than the average and median income in the U.S. By inspection it’s unaffordable and unsustainable. But that’s what our non-system regularly produces. It needs reform.
