BIG PHARMA ATROCITIES
The pharmaceutical industry hides behind marketing and messages to appear to be the heroes in the healthcare marketplace.
Yet, endless manipulative practices that have become the industry norm intend to keep patients in the dark and confused about the realities of drug pricing, and in particular, importation.
Yet Americans get a wake-up call every time they visit the pharmacy – prices are out of control and there is no logical explanation.
As the chart below from the American Enterprise Institute indicates, Americans subsidize drugs for the rest of the world. (For the full AEI article on this topic, please click here)
Source: AEI
While opponents of importation cite safety as the main reason for not importing, the safety argument uses scare tactics when in reality Big Pharma’s motivation is to protect their profits.
Our allies at PharmacyChecker.com filed a lawsuit against several Big Pharma front groups that have created shadow regulation through private agreements with Internet gatekeepers and search engines.
Shadow regulation is the ‘use of private agreements with Internet gatekeepers to regulate the speech of others’ (source: AEI). In practice, these front groups were working with a popular search engine to red flag online pharmacies that they claimed were unsafe. In reality, they were flagging sites that had long safety records while not flagging sights that were selling narcotics and counterfeit medications.
The PharmacyChecker lawsuit claims that these front groups are involved in this “conspiracy” to keep lower priced medications available through online pharmacies out of reach for millions of Americans through engaging in devious tactics and spreading misinformation. (for more information on the lawsuit click here)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation covered the complaint, calling out the front groups for posing as consumer watchdogs while really seeking to block access to safe and affordable drug importation. EFF emphasizes that these groups represent one example of how Big Pharma exerts their influence by creating a culture of fear as it relates to drug importation. (full article can be accessed here.)
Big Pharma atrocities such as these examples are not rare. Yet, the industry claims to be focused on patients. It does not add up.
We support efforts to expose nefarious tactics by Big Pharma and others intended to keep prices high and block attempts to access safe and affordable medications through licensed, legitimate online pharmacies in Canada.
If you are tired of paying outrageously high prices for medications in the U.S. and need access to safe and affordable daily health maintenance medications, please visit this link.