Let’s be clear: We need innovative and responsible drug companies to provide useful medications and life-saving pharmaceutical products. But the system breaks down when drug companies place profits above safety, leaving consumers to face concealed risks of injury and death as Big Pharma continues to manufacture dangerous products. And Big Pharma does this while spending millions on lobbying for lesser regulations and greater protection from lawsuits. Remarkably, the Supreme Court of the United States itself provided drug makers with a boost in 2011 and again in 2013, providing immunity for generic drugs from certain state-law product liability lawsuits.
With the changing of the political guard in Washington, the chance for Big Pharma to successfully lobby for sweeping legislation to protect its profits is better than ever. As we balance the need for medications that save lives and advance health, we must push for more accountability by drug makers, tighter rules, and reasonable pricing, so that Big Pharma learns to act as a responsible part of American society and understand that they are not above the law. But the path of deregulation the new Administration is on is taking the American people in the wrong direction.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
To make matters worse, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the newly appointed commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, is so financially tied to Big Pharma that he could not possibly be a reliable watchdog—the FDA’s core job in protecting the public from dangerous drugs. With Gottlieb at the FDA helm, Big Pharma may be getting yet another boost to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of consumers seriously injured by pharmaceutical drugs every year.
“Do no harm” is the sacred principle medical professionals have lived and worked by for centuries. But with Big Pharma, a different principle is often at work: “Do no harm…unless you stand to make billions of dollars.” And every year hundreds of thousands of people taking drugs developed by these billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies suffer hospitalization, debilitating injury, or death.
The reasons for those catastrophic consequences vary, from unavoidable error to negligence in design or manufacturing, to outright reckless or deceptive conduct. But for consumers, the upshot is the same: without the threat of significant financial consequences—the only kind of consequences seemingly of any interest to Big Pharma—these companies have no incentive to do everything in their power to ensure their drugs are safe or provide adequate warnings.
Unbelievable as it may seem, Big Pharma has cynically propagated this situation for decades. Knowing the financial cost of damages awarded in lawsuits to be a fraction of the net revenue that can be earned, the industry has gladly accepted the status quo. Now, seeing President Trump back away from his consumer-friendly campaign rhetoric to advance instead a more business-friendly, deregulation policy, Big Pharma may be on the verge of wielding even more power in Washington.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
And that’s a scary scenario no matter what side of the aisle you support.
The lobbyists and high-powered PR firms working behind the scenes to advance Big Pharma’s special interests make the case that lawsuits awarding damages to victims place an unnecessary strain on an industry already burdened by strict regulation. But this is patently false.
Far from being curbed by strict regulation, pharmaceutical companies knowingly operate in an environment in which regulatory agencies are overworked and under-resourced. They’ve freely driven up drug prices, sometimes even spending more on marketing their products than on researching and developing them, and by law they are not required to negotiate drug prices with Medicare.
In banking on the idea that Washington will be sympathetic to its case, Big Pharma may have missed one of the biggest messages delivered in this past election: Americans on both sides of the aisle and from all parts of the country are fed up with power serving power. Americans are demanding accountability, and rightfully so.
Today, Big Pharma’s profits soar while individuals who have suffered injuries from taking these products have only the courtroom as a means to obtain justice. Justice will not be served, though, by allowing Big Pharma to immunize itself from consumer lawsuits. That outcome would violate the principles of accountability and responsibility that are at the core of our society. But Big Pharma nevertheless continues to push its protective agenda to the detriment of the American consumer.
As more and more drugs are needed every year to promote health and healing for millions of Americans, the need for responsible, ethical pharmaceutical companies is crucial. It’s time for America to stand up to an industry that too frequently puts profits ahead of safety and stop Big Pharma’s campaign designed to rob millions of Americans of their day in court.
It may seem daunting, but consumers can take action. Call or write your elected officials. Be active at your representatives’ town hall meetings. Get in touch with the FTC and tell them how you feel about a growing big pharma monopoly by making your voice heard about industry mergers and acquisitions. Talk to your doctors about all your healthcare options and do everything you can to stay healthy. Finally, fight back economically by researching discount options at retail pharmacies.
Photo: Devrimb, Getty Images
