Finally there's the lucrative "disease" of menopause which made Pharma billions until the meno drugs Premarin and Prempro were found to causes endometrial cancer and breast cancer respectively. This week, an FDA advisory committee continues the unsavory tradition of overmedicating a non-disease by considering gabapentin (Neurontin) and paroxetine (Paxil) for "treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms due to menopause."
How safe are gabapentin and paroxetine? Both Neurontin-maker
Pfizer and Paxil-maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC settled major lawsuits
over buried risks related to the drugs and face many others. One Paxil study
that hid risks was written by GlaxoSmithKline's marketing firm not the credited
doctors, according to court proceedings brought by the New York Attorney
General.
It is easy to blame Pharma, a bought FDA, bought medical
institutions and a rubber stamp press for promotion of expensive and dangerous
drugs for non-diseases. But patients who decide from seeing an ad that they are
"sick" also perpetuate the business model--and raise insurance rates.
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