pharma photos on Flickr

The following 3 items are by Robert Reich (Wikipedia: A summa cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College, Reich is a former Harvard University professor and the former Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He is currently Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Reich also serves on the board of directors of Tutor.com, and is a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security).

I beg each visitor here to carefully read the whole of the 1st item before continuing to the next 2 brief ones. You probably do not know the scope of the corporate & political theft being committed, nor how much you have been, are being & in the future will be lied to by business bosses, politicians & nooze media figures who regard themselves as our masters, & who regard all information as mere movable pieces in a con game they run in order to provide themselves with wealth, power & all of the pleasures of slave owning Roman emperors:

ITEM I

Double payment

[Oct. 2003] - Prescription drugs are the largest single health-care expense for most Americans, especially seniors. And drug prices are rising at a whopping 17 percent a year, more than four times faster than inflation. Pharmaceutical prices are higher in the United States than in any other country in the world. That's why increasing numbers of Americans are filling their prescriptions in Canada.

It's also why politicians of all stripes are eager to put their names on legislation providing prescription-drug benefits. Whatever emerges from this Congress is likely to be a complex and pricey scheme that will cost American taxpayers upwards of $400 billion over the next decade.

Drug companies say all this money is necessary because research and development on new drugs is hugely expensive. Bringing a new drug to market costs between $500 and $800 million. And we all benefit from what these new drugs can do.

But pharmaceutical companies don't own up to the fact that you and I are already paying twice for new drugs. Not only do we pay high and rapidly-escalating purchase prices for them, we also pay through our taxes. You see, a portion of federal tax revenues goes to support drug research.

For example, eight of the 10 most popular drugs produced by one of America's largest pharmaceutical companies were developed at the National Institutes of Health, which is a huge taxpayer-funded research complex. Most of today's anti-cancer drugs also have come courtesy of the National Institutes of Health.

Drug companies do research and development, of course. But they devote only 12-and-a-half percent of their incomes to it, on average. They spend more than twice that on advertising and marketing. Much of the rest is profit. And drug companies are very, very profitable. During the recent downturn, the nation's top 10 pharmaceutical companies reported a 33 percent increase in profits.

I've got a proposal that won't add a penny to the federal budget, will hold down a lot of drug prices, and won't harm research and development on new drugs. Here's the deal: Any drug company that wants its research subsidized by American taxpayers has to limit the price of its new drugs to the direct cost of producing them -- that is, materials, factory production, and distribution -- plus a fair return of, say, 15 percent.

No drug company has to take this deal, of course, because it doesn't have to turn to government to finance its research. But if it wants you and me to pay for its research with our tax dollars, it can't expect us to subsidize it once again by paying through the nose for its new drugs. Got it? One bite at the apple. Either tax-payer supported research or consumer-supported research.

It's their choice. But it's our wallets.

URL: www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15904

ITEM II

"[Dec. 2006] The new Democratic Congress hasn’t even begun work and already the pharmaceutical industry -- known as Big Pharma in Washington -- is attacking the Democrat’s plan to have Medicare use its huge bargaining power to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors.

"First, Big Pharma says it will amount to government price controls. That’s nonsense. Medicare won’t be setting prices. It will be negotiating them. The Veterans Administration already negotiates drug prices on behalf of its 4.4 million enrollees. Medicaid negotiates on behalf of millions of Medicaid recipients. Why shouldn’t Medicare use its even bigger bargaining clout to get bargains for its nearly 23 million enrollees?"

ITEM III

"[Aug. 2009]... after being reported in the Los Angeles Times, the White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare legislation will bar the government from using its huge purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices. That's basically the same deal George W. Bush struck in getting the Medicare drug benefit, and it's proven a bonanza for the drug industry."

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Big Pharma by Dave Hallewell

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no prescription needed...

Pharma Brochure by Karpatiya Suresh

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Pharma Brochure

35142933356_6dd5e15913_o by NurnbergMesse Brasil

Pharma by Benzyl

pharma spam fake certificates

Benzestrol blotter, designer unknown, 1940s by Herb Lubalin Study Center

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The blotter was a common form of pharmaceutical promotionals.

pharma by sashagirl72

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Internet by thumax

American Heroes cards promoting the drug Nitranitol by Herb Lubalin Study Center

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Legendary American Heroes set of 6 Prints backed with ads for a drug to treat hypertension: Nitranitol with Phenobarbital.

Made by The William S. Merrell Co. Undated.

The set includes cards for John Henry, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed, Stormalong, “the fabulous hero of the New England whalers, and Joe Magarac, “the miraculous steelworker”.

Thanks by The collage man

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IMG_2396 by Pharma Nutri