Over the last few decades, pharmaceutical industrialization has posed a major threat to the well being of many Americans and to the ethical integrity of our nation.
In 2009, Pfizer, a major American pharmaceutical company, settled an indictment of health care fraud for $2.3 billion, one of the largest drug settlements in history. Pfizer was found to have made false claims about its medicine, particularly by advertising unapproved effects of the medicine and also by paying physicians to recommend the medicine regardless of their professional medical opinions. Disconcertingly enough, this is not the only case of the corruption brought about the by the capitalization and industrialization of the pharmaceutical industry.
Of the major medicinal companies of America, few have gone unscathed by fraud cases. While this may or may not be a legal oversight, the motives of these major companies are clear: to make profit.
Recently, Johnson & Johnson (6th largest pharmaceutical company by sales) has undergone thousands of lawsuits against its selling of Risperdal, a drug advertised to have effects that were not approved by the FDA and without proper caveats of the apparently probable side effects of the development of Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, the inability to move, and even death. Johnson & Johnson has paid near $3 billion in settlements for lawsuits involving this fraud, but is estimated to have sales upwards of $30 billion from Risperdal alone.
This is yet another manifestation of the corruption transpired by the excessive capitalism in our country. People are supposed to be the source of power, and people want ethical decisions to be made.
In this nation, however, money has muted the voices of many. It is this silence, this indifference, this insouciance whence money draws its power. If we can open our eyes to the atrocities of unchecked capitalism, if we can speak out against them and end the silence from which money derives its power, perhaps this nation and this world can achieve an elevated ethical status.