Big Pharma’s War Against the American People…

They are Killing Everyone – and are Getting Away With It…

We Need To Shut Them Down -“We the people”  DO NOT NEED CONGRESS to do that…

Opinion by “Deplorable” Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen

 

Washington Watchers report that in the US Congress 399 of 435 US Representatives, and 97 of 100 US Senators WALLOW in 2016 election cycle Big Pharma cash.

As president Trump says of Big Pharma: “They contribute massive amounts of money to political people,” Trump said during an impromptu news conference, turning to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was standing to his side. “I don’t know, Mitch, maybe even to you.”

But let’s look at reality…

Two things:

We Americans DO NOT NEED Big Pharma (the pharmaceutical industry) AT ALL.  We can do just fine with “Little Pharma.”

We can easily replace Big Pharma with things that actually work, and get a real US health care system going.

And WE DO NOT NEED Congress to get this done.  We ONLY need Trump – and we have him.

I’ll show you just exactly how to do it.  It’s time…

The biggest, and most dangerous enemy America faces is NOT Russia, nor North Korea (nuclear bombs included), nor an invasion by Jihadists.  It’s not Creeping Marxism.  It’s not crappy Public Schools.  It’s not fake Climate Change.  It’s not the liberal media.

Although all these things listed above are terribly important issues we Americans have come to deal with, none of them come even close to the DOMINANT ISSUE on the American political scene – Big Pharma.

Right Now – Big Pharma’s BIG MONEY Controls BIG PARTS of America…

As President Trump said, just the other day, speaking on Congress and the  “Opioid Crisis” –

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Monday addressed a well-established tenet of life in Washington: The pharmaceutical industry has loads of money and doesn’t hesitate to spend it on Congress.

“They contribute massive amounts of money to political people,” Trump said during an impromptu news conference, turning to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was standing to his side. “I don’t know, Mitch, maybe even to you.”

McConnell let out a short laugh.

Trump was not wrong. In his last race in 2014, McConnell raked in $550,923 from the pharmaceutical and health products industries — more than any other individual lawmaker received that year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes political spending data from the Federal Election Commission.

Through a separate leadership political action committee, McConnell brought in another $244,000 from the sector, the database shows. Those figures represent contributions from both individuals employed by the industry and companies’ political action committees.” 

Trump’s comments came after he once again claimed that the pharmaceutical industry is “getting away with murder” with high drug prices.

Others on Capitol Hill share that concern, and executives from major industry groups will testify before a Senate committee on Tuesday morning that is looking into the issue.

But drug pricing is hardly the only issue of concern to the industry, and it delivers millions of dollars to McConnell and other “political people” during each election cycle.

Some 399 House members (including some midterm candidates) and 97 senators took campaign contributions from the sector in 2016, the last full election cycle.

The industry tends to favor Republicans more than Democrats — the sector gave some $15.5 million to the GOP in the 2016 cycle while it shelled out just $12.45 million to Democratic candidates.

McConnell takes in more than most in part because he helps to fundraise for other Senate Republicans. Even when he was not engaged in an active campaign, as in the 2016 cycle, his campaign committee and leadership PACs pulled in $828,173 from the pharmaceutical industry. And he’s on track to raise even more this year: in the current cycle, he’s already raised some $654,173 from the sector, all per the same Center for Responsive Politics data.

Trump claimed he doesn’t play the same game.

“Me? I’m not interested in their money,” Trump said Monday afternoon. “I don’t need their money.”

What’s Worse – Vaccines or Opioids?  They are BOTH a Major Crisis…

The TOTAL problem is magnitudes larger than the combination of the two.  Each of these issues have similar facets.

Both the Opioid and the Vaccine Crises have a singular similarity – they are costing local communities a fortune to deal with.

CNBC, in their article just below says:

“Big Pharma’s opioid mess is about to hit the industry—hard

“When he was first elected, President Trump injected some fear into the hearts of the drug industry when he promised to do something about high drug prices. He even repeated that attack on the pharma companies earlier this week. But this emergency declaration could be more harmful than price controls. Because caregivers were pushed so hard by pharma reps and others to dole out opioids, the entire industry’s practice of heavily lobbying doctors and hospitals to prescribe certain drugs could be severely curbed with new regulations. That would mess with a business model that has enriched the industry for years, not unlike the way curbing tobacco advertising has disrupted the cigarette makers over the past 47 years.”

Yup – It is Time to Curb Drug Advertising…

Direct To Consumer Advertising (DTCA) for pharmaceuticals is only allowed in two countries on Planet Earth – the United States and New Zealand.  And New Zealand is far more restrictive.  All other countries refuse to allow it – why?

The LA Times says:

“Only two countries permit DTC drug ads — the U.S. and New Zealand. Every other nation has concluded that its unwise and irresponsible to pitch potentially dangerous meds to people lacking the medical training to make smart decisions. Better to have patients discuss such things directly with their physicians.

Unfortunately, Mark, that’s not going to change any time soon. If the FDA caves to the latest pressure from drug companies, which seems likely, things will only get worse. 

The key words in that discussion above are “If the FDA caves to the latest pressure from drug companies…”

Trump directly controls the FDA/CDC/NIH…

The FDA is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).  All Trump has to do is order a convening of a quickly appointed FDA committee “to study the DTCA issue,” for fifteen full seconds, then make a recommendation to the FDA Commissioner to shut down DTCA, who then forwards his/her recommendation to DHHS, who then forwards the DTCA cancellation recommendation to the President.

Then President Trump call for a press conference and announces the end of DTCA in the United States.  The whole process could take less than a minute.

VERY effective government…  Kind of a lesson for Congress.

Then the American Public could watch the liberal media choke itself to death…

Remember the “how-can-this-be?” look on the faces of the liberal media on election night 2016 when they figured out that the American public, for the most part, DID NOT listen to them about “who should be President of the United States?”

Well, this media night would be MUCH, MUCH  better.  Why?  The realization that the liberal media just LOST 70% of their income would hit them hard.  All of those newscaster pink Bentley Convertibles would have to go back to the leasing companies in the morning.

Two birds with one stone…

ALL of US Health Care can be changed by the Executive Branch…

Technically speaking, the FDA, CDC, NIH, etc. are directly controlled by the President of the United States.  But REALISTICALLY, we know that the employees of those agencies are part of the Big Pharma/ US Agency revolving-door policy which SIGNIFICANTLY REWARDS public employees that regulate IN FAVOR of Big Pharma’s interests.

There are two glaring examples. both of which occurred under the Obama-Nation –  (1) former FDA head Margaret Hamburg, and (2)  former CDC head Julie Gerberding.

(1)  Margaret Hamburg was the worse of the two. 

The entire “Opioid Crisis” STARTED right here with her.

As the 2016 Federal RICO suit filed against her, and her husband, shows, Hamburg used her position:

“While Defendant Hamburg was FDA Commissioner, her husband, Defendant Brown’s annual income, not coincidentally, increased from a reported $10 million in 2008 to an estimated $125 million in 2011 and an estimated $90 million in 2012, due in whole or in part to Defendants’ racketeering conspiracy to withhold information about the devastating, life threatening, and deadly effects of Levaquin.”

This lawsuit is unusual; it shines a light on blatant political corruption — the purchase of powerful executive posts.

In 2009, President Barak Obama nominated Dr. Margaret Hamburg for Commissioner of the FDA as a political appointee. The suit alleges that Dr. Hamburg and her husband had made large donations to Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, and to the Clinton Foundation. And that they “gave political contributions and gratuities to President Obama to induce him to nominate her to be appointed as FDA Commissioner.”

“Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg was nominated as a result of huge political and other gratuities to Hillary Clinton and The Clinton Foundation, and at Mrs. Clinton’s recommendation.” 

The suit further charges that “During the confirmation process before Congress, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, acting in concert with her husband, Peter F. Brown, at all material times the Co-CEO of a hedge fund named Renaissance Technologies, L.L.C., failed to disclose to Congress and other relevant authorities, her and her husband’s clear-cut conflict of interest –specifically, that Renaissance Technologies, L.L.C. held hundreds of millions of dollars of Johnson & Johnson stock, the manufacturer of the deadly drug, Levaquin.”

“Once confirmed as FDA commissioner, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg acted as the instrumentality that all defendants used to perpetrate their conspiracy and racketeering enterprise by having her act illegally and outside the scope of her authority as FDA commissioner to suppress material information to plaintiffs and the public that Levaquin was inherently dangerous and in fact, deadly.”

And it gets even better (worse)…

“Hamburg also came under fire when she approved the highly addictive painkiller drug, Zogenix

In December 2012, an FDA advisory panel of experts voted 11 to 2 against approval of the painkiller, Zohydro ER. The panel cited concerns over that drug’s potential for overdose. Indeed, 28 law enforcement agencies and addiction experts had voiced concern that approval of a pure hydrocodone drug will lead to an increase in overdoses and deaths. Zogenix, could be used by people addicted to other opioids, including oxycodone.

Fifteen anti-addiction groups wrote a letter of complaint to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Despite the safety concerns by the medical and law enforcement community, and despite the expert panel’s overwhelming rejection of the drug, Dr. Hamburg approved it.

The lawsuit provides documentation showing that from 2011 to May 2015, Dr. Hamburg’s husband’s hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies, “not coincidentally, held stock in Alkermes, the manufacturer of Zohydro amounting to tens of millions of dollars. Does anyone not recognize corruption?

The conflict of interest doesn’t end there. Adding even more insult to injury, Alkermes also manufactures a drug to TREAT addiction. So, both Alkermes and Renaissance Tech were given the FDA green light to rake in profits from both the sale of a highly addictive drug, then cashing in on the sale of a treatment for that drug-induced addiction!!

(2)  Gerberding, while at the CDC, put the Childhood Vaccine Program into high gear.  Then when the kitchen got hot, she exited to run Merck’s Vaccine Division at a HUGE (Ten times increase) salary/income upgrade.

An earlier BolenReport article pointed out:

“First, let me tell you about Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC from 2002 through 2009.  She was running things at CDC when Brian Hooker PhD began making his FOIA requests – and was being stonewalled.  She was there for seven years.

President Obama fired her as head of CDC in early 2009.  Within just a few weeks Gerberding went from that $250,000 per year CDC salary to become the president of Merck’s Vaccine Division at an estimated salary of $2,500,000 per year.

Nice, huh?   Gets fired – three weeks later gets a job that pays ten (10) times what she made in the government. (squint your eyes, and wrinkle your nose here – as though there was a bad smell suddenly in the room.).

Gerberding came to CDC in 2002, and as stated in the Wikipedia article I already mentioned:

“Soon after her arrival at the CDC, Gerberding began an overhaul of the agency’s organizational structure. On April 21, 2005 Gerberding formally announced the reorganization of CDC to “confront the challenges of 21st-century health threats”.^[1] This reorganization resulted in the following structure:^[2]

After the restructuring began, many of the CDC’s senior scientists and leaders either left or announced plans to leave.^[3]“

When you look carefully at Gerberding’s restructuring, it looks to me, like virtually every restructured sub agency had everything to do with PROMOTING VACCINES; selling the idea of vaccines, coordinating vaccines, keeping public records of vaccines, getting money from other agencies to buy vaccines and distribute them, etc.

It doesn’t surprise me a bit that Merck found her services valuable, and was willing to pay her for those services – after the fact.  Merck, according to an article in Xconomy.com:

“Julie Gerberding, the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been in one of those rare positions for about the past 18 months as president of Merck’s vaccine unit. At Merck (NYSE: MRK), she has been learning the ins and outs of a $5-billion-a-year operation that makes 14 of the 17 vaccines the CDC recommends for children, and nine of the 10 recommended for adults.”

Get the picture?

But there are solutions…

All Trump has to do is to re-assign uncooperative DHHS (FDA, CDC, NIH) employees to something a little more useful…  I can envision a program where re-assigned “FDA/CDC/NIH Experts” could scoop up penguin droppings, place them on their tongue to warm them, then spit the proceeds onto a petri dish for examination.

Rinse and repeat…

We Need to Put ONLY people who act in favor of the American people in those public agency jobs…

Once we do that we can begin to construct a REAL US health Care system.

How?

(1)  Obviously we need to stop Big Pharma Direct to Consumer Advertising (DTCA).  The liberal media can try to figure out how to survive with “we’ll carpet-clean five rooms for $99…” advertising.

Does anyone have any idea what the Nightly News might be like WITHOUT the fear-mongering reporting of drive-by-shootings, children killed, fires-everywhere, floods-everywhere, giant-hurricanes-coming-everywhere DESIGNED to promote anxiety medications?

Just think – a Nightly News without Big Pharma controls – NO organized FEAR and much cleaner carpets…

(2)  We need to gut the FDA, CDC, NIH of existing department heads – installing ONLY anti-Pharma leaders.

Why?

Currently, with Big Pharma in tight control of the agencies, they cause two major problems for Americans:

(a)  They approve and promote drugs and vaccines that are dangerous – like with Margaret Hamburg, and Julie Gerberding.

(b)  they BLOCK development of health products and companies that COMPETE with Big Pharma.

We’ve divided up the work of explaining what needs to be done SPECIFICALLY here at the BolenReport…

And we will tell you those specifics in a series of articles.

Why?

We don’t need, nor want, Big Pharma in our health care system.

If you DOUBT what I am saying is true than you HAVE NOT been listening to my friends Donald Trump and Steve Bannon.

You can catch what Steve most recently said in a visit to Orange County, California here.  Just below is an excerpt:

Stepping out from behind the podium, comfortably walking about the stage, Bannon gave a forty-minute-long speech covering a myriad of issues that began with effusive praise of President Trump, the importance of winning and how victories beget victories, and about the great challenge ahead in taking on the, “corporatists, lobbyists, consultants, and the politicians they control.”

We are NOT taking prisoners…

Stay tuned…

Opinion by “Deplorable“ Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen