This blog will be the last in a series related to the book: Wonder Drug by Jennifer Vanderbes. 2023. Her book was a treasure trove of information concerning medical and scientific fraud, drug trial fraud, and pharmaceutical influence in drug trials and government corruption. Her book is a must read for those who care about truth in medicine, and problems that corruption causes amongst the public. Link for book here:
Amazon.com : wonder drug the secret history of thalidomide
In my book Louis Pasteur Condemns Big Pharma, I typically offer solutions to problems I have found in medicine and science. Unfortunately, corruption is everywhere. It is in your doctor’s office. It is in the insurance companies. It is in the medical schools. It is in your state legislator’s office. And it is no stranger to the lawmakers in Washington DC, the regulatory agencies for the drug industry, and even the White House. The pharmaceutical lobby is the largest and most powerful lobbying group in the world, and they want to make money and are not shy about bending or breaking rules. People’s lives are often a secondary consideration in their pursuit of money and power.
Therefore, I have no simple solution for this corruption. Except this – Do not let them get away with murder, injury and intentional harm to the people they are supposed to be helping and protecting. Punish them to the fullest extent of the law if they are found guilty of wrongdoing. For too long they have gotten away with great injustices on the precept that if we start punishing drugmakers we will not have anyone left to make our medicines.
We should not allow the weasels to run the henhouse. It is a bad idea. But this appears to be exactly what we have done. If we set up proper incentives for doing the right thing and proper disincentives against doing the wrong things, then I think we will be on our way to a system which can better serve the American people.
The following is a link to my book page on my website:
Louis Pasteur Condemns Big Pharma by Stephen Heartland
Examples of pharmaceutical influence and government corruption.
Now, let’s get back to the book Wonder Drug and its many references to how the pharmaceutical industry influences and corrupts those in the government.
- “Wiley discovered a rampant, nationwide food crisis: black pepper cut with soil; coffee grounds thickened with charcoal; candy containing lead… it took eight years for lawmakers to act on Wiley’s discoveries. Not until 1890 was legislation put forth to regulate food production… the bill was ‘defeated by an alliance of quacks, ruthless crooks, pious frauds, scoundrels, high-priced lawyer-lobbyists, vested interests, liars, corrupt members of Congress, venal publishers, cowards in high office, the stupid, the apathetic, and the duped.’” Wonder Drug. Page 13.
Over one hundred years have gone by since this time, and corruption has not gotten better, it has gotten worse. People are protecting their interests and jobs at the expense of the health and welfare of the American people. Many lawmakers at state and federal levels have assisted this in happening, because money is the idol which they serve. Finally, once the public was able to exert pressure on those in power, the 1906 Food and Drug Act came into being to help protect the people from unsafe food and drug products.
- “… after a decade as the editor of JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), Smith defected to Washington for a job with the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA) – the country’s oldest drug industry lobby. The 140-company alliance, which sold over 90 percent of the country’s drugs, had tapped Smith to be its first full-time salaried president. The increasingly aggressive industry was recruiting its former overseers.” Wonder Drug. Page 47.
With his connections in the medical world, the drug lobby had found a friend who could help their industry become more profitable. Since this time, scores of people have left jobs as watchdogs over the drug makers and then changed sides and served the drug industry as their lapdogs. One must wonder how much preferential treatment they provided to the drug makers while serving as overseers and watchdogs to end up in so many varied lucrative positions. Money buys power.
Barbara Moulton, who worked as a drug reviewer for the FDA, had a difficult job due to wanting to protect the American people from harmful or questionable drugs. Her job became even more difficult when her superiors wanted to rush new drugs through the FDA approval process without proper vetting.
- “… Her request that Wyeth Laboratories add a written warning about addiction risk to a product earned her a reprimand from a superior for undermining his ‘policy of friendliness with industry.’ When four pharmaceutical representatives swarmed her office to protest her delay of a drug application lacking long-term safety data, the chief of the New Drug Branch stepped in to approve the application. In February 1960, Barbara resigned.” Wonder Drug. Page 54.
We should want people to question safety and efficacy of new drugs. We should want people working for the agency to have a conscience and to do the right thing. But often in these agencies, speaking out against pharmaceutical companies only invites punishment and being ostracized by fellow workers. Due to this atmosphere, good people left and people who would ‘rubber stamp’ these new drug applications in favor of FDA approval remained. The pharmaceutical industry got what they wanted.
Due to quite a few drugs having been in the news at the time as having harmed and/or killed patients, the public was worried about the safety of these products. Finally, the importance of having clear legislation to protect people made its way to Senator Kefauver. To protect the public, he sponsored the drug bill S. 1552 in April 1961.
- “… The bill aimed to lower prices and increase safety… To ensure quality, the FDA would authorize drug manufacturers and inspect plants… To improve safety, ads would have to disclose side effects and efficacy. Package inserts, with warnings and contraindications, would go to doctors, not just pharmacists… The sixty-day automatic approval for drugs was eliminated, and manufacturers would now have to prove each drug was both safe and effective.” Wonder Drug. Pg 205.
The hoped for new law was only a bill and was still in committee. It needed to be released from committee, then ushered to the floor for a vote by the House and Senate for the drug bill to become a law. In other words, there was still time for the most powerful lobbying group in the world to act. Pharmaceutical companies still owned and controlled many lawmakers in Congress, and these were paid for with their Big Pharma money.
It was a battle that loomed in the future. A battle between good and evil, right and wrong. Those with money and power held the cards. The only way for a bill of this magnitude to pass into law was to create a sense of public urgency. The American people can be fickle, and the news of the day can quickly become old news. Public support was needed to help this bill become law.
- “On Monday morning, June 11, Kefauver arrived at the Senate in great spirits… he was certain he had the votes to get S. 1552 out of committee that day… as he entered the Judiciary Committee hearing room… they voted down his wording.” Wonder Drug. Page 221.
- “… the minority leader, Illinois Republican senator Everett Dirkson… distributed copies of an entirely new set of amendments… These revisions – basically a new bill that went light on the drug industry – would be renamed the Eastland-Dirksen bill.” Wonder Drug. Page 221.
Kefauver wondered what had happened. Why the sudden change? Why is there a new bill? And why hadn’t he heard about it? Money, power, and influence happened. In other words, government corruption in one of its finest moments.
- “In what would later be called ‘the secret meeting,’ Eastland’s staff director, two representatives from HEW (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare), two Republican lawyers, and two representatives from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association all met with the blessing of Myer Feldman, Kennedy’s (JFK, president at the time) right-hand man. The daylong June 8 gathering began with drug industry men presenting their ideal amendments, which by early evening the whole group had somewhat agreed to… But by the following Monday morning, the PMA had typed up the handshake agreements to present to the Judiciary Committee as a new bill, ostensibly blessed by the HEW.” Wonder Drug. Page 221-222.
If you wonder how some of these bills are created and then become law, this scenario is a somewhat common occurrence. Regarding safety of the henhouse, they allow the weasels to set up the rules. In this case, the drug makers got their secret meeting, got the wording the way they wanted it, then the drug makers drafted the new bill which was to be voted on and become law. All of the new wording strongly favored the drug makers.
Most of the time, the drug makers win using this “secret meeting” technique, much like they did in the 1986 Vaccine Act, which granted liability protection to the drug makers. But this time, Kefauver had a rabbit still in his hat. And this was news of the widespread birth defects coming in from around the world due to thalidomide.
- “If it hadn’t been for Dr. Kelsey,” Blair told the Post reporter, “thalidomide would have been selling here for the past year and we’d now have a medical disaster of major proportion on our hands.” Wonder Drug. Pg 224.
Kefauver got this story to the press quickly. He forced Kennedy to recognize Dr. Kelsey’s work, how she protected American citizens and children from a widespread disaster, and the president ended up giving her The President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service. Kefauver knew this publicity was the only way to force Congress to do the right thing and pass his bill instead of the watered-down version written by the drug industry.
This appears to be the only way to beat the lobbyists who control our lawmakers. There must be recent news, public outrage, or widespread despair which forces those in Congress to disobey their lobbyist masters. Most of the time these lobbyists are in control. This is not only applicable to Big Pharma. It indicates how laws are often created by other lobbyist powers such as Big Insurance, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Tech and others.
But this time, and only because of the tens of thousands of deformed babies due to thalidomide being in the news, Congress was forced to act for the true benefit of the American public. Kefauver’s bill was released by the committee. In October, The Drug Industry Act of 1962 was signed by the president and became law. A rare victory for the good side in a political world run by lobbyists and their interests.
In the end, there was one final slap in the face of thalidomide survivors in the United States.
- “To this day, the United States remains the world’s sole developed nation to refuse support to a single thalidomide victim… Every other country where the drug was distributed has subsidized survivor’s care costs. The U.S. government absolved Merrell of any criminal accountability and essentially dodges any responsibility of its own on a technicality: The millions of offending tablets were given out for free, not sold.” Wonder Drug. Page 334.
As you can see from these examples, pharmaceutical influence has great control over our legislators. While only the ones in Washington D.C. were noted above, this same type of finagling and corruption happens every day in our local state legislatures. Government corruption by our elected officials must end. That will be the only way we can be sure that the American people are served and protected by those who only seek profit at our expense.
In the end it appears that might makes right, and that those with the gold and connections make the rules. The helpless victims of the American thalidomide tragedy, generally missing one or more limbs and struggling through life as best they can, appear to be in no position to gain remuneration for the pain, suffering, and hardships they have endured due to the criminal negligence of the Merrell pharmaceutical drug company and also that of the U.S. government. The law may have improved, but life for these American thalidomide victims has not. Will justice be done?