Big Pharma certainly do get up to some dodgy tricks. On the subject of anti-depressants which are mentioned in the link, but not directly connected, I read recently that when they did double blind placebo tests with some of these materials, there was only about a 1% difference between the results of the patients who got the placebo and those who got the drug. Yet since the launch of Prozac and other SSRI's, Big Pharma has netted billions in global sales. There are many problems with the way the pharmaceutical industry and research into new drugs is done. Just this last week we've even seen David Cameron, British PM, commenting on the need for urgent research into new antibiotics. But there's not so much money in that for drug companies, as antibiotics are a thing you use for a short while and then are off them. The profits are obviously in drugs they can put you on and keep you on. These corporations are there to make money, and that's their primary goal. The fines levied against them may look like a lot, but are derisory sums compared to the profits they make. It's really just the authorities getting their cut of the ill-gotten gains. It would be good if we could come up with a better model for doing research, but it's hard to see how that can be done.
If we all ate properly, avoiding GMOs and took our vitamins and minerals (including iodine) we'd be better off without even hearing what they got to say. They don't want us to do this, they want us to eat what the government has approved and then take the medicine the government approved. Doctors are controlled by the government, they might say they are not but they are in almost everything they do (except what they will eat and feed their families) right down to treating us with radiation and chemo and then letting us die, then collecting off our last bit of taxes after we are gone and if possible for them collecting off anything not willed properly to someone you love. Make sure to insure yourself and write a will if you insist on letting them be your guide so they won't score that too.
There are many lifestyle choices we make that determine our health or lack of it. I agree totally about vitamins and minerals, I'm not happy myself with GMO, but also (as I know too well) things like smoking can have a very negative impact on your long term health prospects. So can drink, drugs, lack of exercise, over eating, under eating. Even a bad mental attitude I think. If you could take all those things out of the equation, we'd all be healthier. It's when things go wrong that we need medicine. I use medication from my doc and also self medicate and pay attention to supplementing my diet. I've tried alternative therapies and found in my case the Chinese herbalism is very good. Thing is though, I'm the kind of person who can take time to read up on medications, treatments etc on the net. A lot of people don't or won't or can't do that, so they will take whatever the doctor prescribes blindly and never look for alternatives.
I am on the net all the time looking up whole foods and herbal meds. I got my mom into it several years ago and we find stuff for each other often. My dad is sooo not into it so when he knows we are on the phone he says "the doctors are at it again, tryin to kill me with their natural food shit". My mom sneaks a lot of stuff in his meals but he gripes when he spots it. It's kinda cute when he picks at his food looking for the poisonous stuff as he calls it.
Big Pharma's business plan is to coerce people into becoming hypochondriacs. Those that do become hypochondriacs are a resource to be expoloited.
