I used to see news stories from India and China, where local entrepreneurs would
buy used infected disposable syringes from hospitals. Then they would get
farmers to wash them with tap water, vacuum pack them and resell them to
pharmacies. I have also read about children dying because such entrepreneurs
would sell chalk pills labelled as antibiotics.
The recent news in New Zealand has really shocked me. I always thought NZ would
be safe from these dangers, but similar things are happening here! And it is not
some crazy uneducated farmer who is misleading us, it is a giant pharmaceutical
multinational multi-billion dollar company who is providing vaccinations to NZ
children, medications for asthma, depression, hepatitis, smoking cessation and
more.
GSK http://www.gsk.co.nz/ has been selling Ribena advertised as a health drink,
containing heaps of vitamin C. Two NZ school girls found that it contained
no traces of vitamin C. Furthermore, it has more sugar than Coca-Colla. Isn't
this clashing with GSK's slogan "do more, feel better, live longer"?
Is Ribena the tip of the iceberg of
GSK lies or is it
really a little mistake? One of the medicines produced by
GSK is the very popular anti-depressant Aropax
(paxill)
. Reports reveal that
GSK had knowledge that aropax was dangerous for teenagers and yet was promoting the drug to doctors as a safe medicine in adolescence and childhood (see
video). Furthermore,
GSK downplayed the risks of withdrawal symptoms from aropax and withheld results from their own studies(
video).
If pharmaceuticals are so mean, why don't the doctors warn us?
Cochrane collaboration is a group of specialist reviewing medical research, and
it is recognised to be the most reliable source for evidence-based medicine. In
2006 Dr. Peter Gøtzsche, director of the Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen compared
studies funded by the pharma industry and reviews done without support of
pharmaceuticals. He recommends ignoring ANY research funded by drug companies.
This is quite a statement to make, isn’t it? And Dr. Gøtzsche does not talk
about advertising by pharmaceuticals, he talks about research published in
peer-reviewed journals.
What are the conseqences of this court case against GSK? A fine of NZ$217,500.
This does not look very serious against 61 billion turnover of GSK. To compare
that to an average NZ income of $31.720, this would mean a fine of $0.0001131!
1 percent of a cent!
It's not a secret that a story like this would have been silenced in no time in
many other countries. It would have never reached the court in the first place.
It makes me proud and happy that in New Zealand a couple of school girls can
pinch a giant.
Related links:
Cochrane collaboration: Do not trust pharmaceuticals + Cochrane about
AcupunctureNZ Herald: Schoolgirls' study nabs food giant
