By: Dr. Mercola, 10/16/2013
Did you know that nearly 20 percent of corporate crime is being committed by companies that make products for your health? Sad but true, no less than 19 pharmaceutical companies made AllBusiness.com’s Top 100 Corporate Criminals List for the 1990s, and the trend has continued if not increased into the 21st Century. Crimes committed by some of the most well-known drug companies include:
Fabricated studies
Covering up serious problems with their drugs
False claims
Bribery, illegal kick-backs, and defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and even the FDA
Immoral threat and intimidation tactics (recall the international drug company Merck actually had a hit list of doctors to be “neutralized” or discredited for criticizing the lethally dangerous painkiller Vioxx. “We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read in court.)
Fortunately, organizations like the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,1 the False Claims Act Legal Center,2 and Politicol News3 have all started investigating and publicizing the criminal actions these companies have been getting away with for decades. Most recently, the British Medical Journal’s blog featured an article4 by former BMJ editor and director of the United Health Group’s chronic disease initiative, Richard Smith, aptly titled: ”Is the Pharmaceutical Industry Like the Mafia?”
For more on this story visit www.wakingtimes.com
