How could I pass up the opportunity to talk about the drug industry's latest example of greed? It seems like I regular post about the latest "biggest settlement in history" resulting from the drug industry's flagrant disregard for public safety. Profits Before People must be on the wall at every drug company in the world it would seem.
The latest example is GlaxoSmithKline's $3 BILLION settlement for illegally marketing drugs and withholding safety data from U.S. regulators (FDA). Yes, it's a fair price to pay ... if you're an average person. But how many days of sales and profits does it represent for GSK? How many billions did they make over the years they were killing people with their illegal actions?
I have to admit I enjoyed watching one of the news shows yesterday when a doctor at one of the nation's leading medical facilities admitting that by their actions GSK undoubtedly killed people in the name of profit. Doctors were bribed with vacations, concerts and gifts and even though they claim to be immune from such influence ... they prescribed GSK's drugs ... and people died.
There seems to be a fundamental fault, a "fatal flaw" if you will, when you base a health care system on profit. Maybe there's a reason that every other industrialized nation on earth has a government-run health care system.
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