In a shocking whistleblower suit, the biggest pharmaceutical company in the world, Pfizer, is being sued for underhanded drug peddling tactics and pushing an unsafe drug on African Americans.
The lawsuit makes astonishing reading. Read it together with subsequent reports and you get some insights into the total amorality of Big Pharma.
Jim Edwards in BNet tells us how Pfizer subsidiary Wyeth was pushing the immunosuppressant drug Rapamune on to kidney transplant patients even though the Food and Drug Administration has explicitly warned about serious side effects and increased mortality associated with switching them from safer drugs. Edwards writes: "Blacks are considered "high-risk" patients for kidney transplants because of their more vigorous immune response to new organs … The suit claims that there is limited data on Rapamune use in black patients, who need a different dosing regimen than whites. Nonetheless, Wyeth targeted another hospital that primarily serves the black community for Rapamune "conversion." Conversion is the practice of switching a patient from their existing transplant drugs to Rapamune."
The total lack of ethics is bad enough but the allegations of racism will taint Pfizer for many years to come. What little corporate reputation a drug company can have will take a real hammering.
How can I speak the truth without being offensive? These drug companies have got to go.