Senator Brown gets to point...drug companies use cheaper foreign, unsafe materials to save money

In what is a delightful piece of irony, United States Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has taken action that has to cause anyone who has followed the campaign of false charges, misdirection and scare tactics by pharma and its allies against access by Americans to safe, affordable prescription medicines from licensed, registered pharmacies outside the United States to recognize that pharma has been caught in a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

For years, proponents of such access have battled to arm the American public with the facts--that pharmacies in other countries must meet rigid standards that meet and often exceed those of the oversight in the U.S. Added to this is the fact that these reputable pharmacies and services exhibit the highest standards of ethics and professionalism.

Still, in an attempt to protect its predatory pricing practices, the pharmaceutical industry has conducted a vicious campaign enlisting allies as diverse as a bus-riding Grandma Green who has toured the country in a John Madden-style bus to spread the pharma gospel of fear and mis-statements by college professors such as Dr. Marv Shepherd, who heads up something called the Pharmacoeconomic Studies Center at the University of Texas, but who resorts to subterfuge when called out about their pharma industry links and support, building a speaking career talking about 'counterfeit' medicines via the Internet.

Added to this is the disregard for traditional journalistic standards of media that misuse standards of free speech, hiding behind their right to make inaccurate charges, and then claim a special privilege of protection from having to report factually and accurately. One of the more recent examples is the totally false charges made by an investigative team of WISH-TV in Indianapolis against CanaRx Services, Inc., a leading international pharmacy benefits manager based in Canada. Even though CanaRx has created additional oversight practices to guarantee the safety and efficacy of prescription medicines purchased through voluntary programs with employees of local governments and has generated millions of dollars in savings for hard-pressed local governments, an 'investigative' reporter made unfounded charges of 'counterfeit drugs' in her report. When faced with demands--even the opportunity--to rectify its mistake and to correct a statement that the reporter had attempted to give CanaRx the opportunity to respond, the station instead chose to hide behind Indiana law designed supposedly to promote free discussion and debate, rather than meeting its resposibility to set the record straight.

And therein lies the basis of what makes Senator Brown's letter to Pfizer so special. It is the first time that anyone has called out the web that pharma has spun. The Senator is calling for an investigation based on earlier Pfizer testimony that it outsources 17 percent of its pharmaceutical manufacturing and acknowledgement by the FDA of the pharma trend of outsourcing to avoid drug safety regulations.

What a spectacle! Pfizer, the largest drug company in the world that has spent untold millions of dollars to prevent Americans from purchasing prescription medicines claiming concerns about safety, is using substandard ingredients to avoid oversight. Remember, we're not talking about just the manufacturing of the majority of prescription medicnes outside the U.S. (Lipitor is from Ireland,, for example), but a conscious decision by Pfizer--and others--to cut corners with no regard for the safety and efficacy of its products.

There's an old saying that when you point a finger at someone, you have three pointing back at yourself. Pfizer proves that it's still true.

Let's hope Senator Brown's call for an investigation is heeded. As part of that process, it would be appropriate to expand the scope to look at the pattern of abuse of the truth by pharma and its allies against the legitimate operations of a host of legitimate pharmacies and businesses that have dedicated themselves to providing Amerians with access to safe, affordable prescription medicines only to be victimized by reckless and false charges about their adherence to the highest standards of safety, all the while providing vast numbers of individual Americans, groups and local governments relief from the highest drug prices in the world.

To read Senator Brown's letter, click here.
Posted by Daniel Hines, publisher, TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com

The reason for Rx for American Health

America is in a healthcare crisis. Ironically, at a time when millions upon millions of Americans lack medical insurance, when children are the targets of budgetary cuts and lack healthcare and medicines, when pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars in profits, while the elderly are once again facing a health maintenance crisis because of the rising costs of medicines, while families lack access to medical care, and our national, state budgets and local budgets are facing the reduction and loss of the basic responsibilities of government, relief is possible with a very simple concept--allowing U.S. citizens access to prescription medicines from licensed, registered, reputable pharmacies outside the U.S.
In a unique example of 'double-speak', this relief has been labeled 'reimportation', giving the mistaken impression that the prescription medicines are somehow being manufactured in this country, exported and sent back to the United States.
Actually, the vast majority of prescription medicines are manufactured outside the United States and sold the consumers in this country at the highest prices for prescription medicines in the world.
Why should this be? Because the pharmaceutical manufacturers who spend more on advertising, marketing and lobbying than on research and development are more concerned with profits than the health of Americans.
It is time for this to change. That is why Rx for American Health will present the facts about the benefits of access to safe, affordable prescriptions, contrasting that with the tremendous cost to the public health, the public well-being, and the burden of the cost of high-priced prescription medicines to budgets at the local, state and Federal levels.
We will do this by 'calling out' the practices of the pharmaceutical industry as it makes moves on a number of fronts--misstatements, predatory business practices, undermining the democratic process with its millions of dollars of expenditures to influence policy-makers to act in its behalf at the expense of the public well-being.
Rx for American Health will reflect opinions from a number of sources, but always its goal will be to create the climate to finally bring prescription medicine price relief to beleaguered Americans who might otherwise be denied the benefits that can be provided by a regimen of access to safe, affordable prescription medicines. We will illustrate the savings as well as the health benefits that are possible--savings that can relieve the burden on strained budgets our local, state and Federal governments.
All of these illustrate the core of our conviction that such access must be considered as a part of the totality of the healthcare crisis facing the United States, and the providing of such access to safe, affordable prescription medicines must be a part of any plans for comprehensive medical reform in the United States.
Daniel Hines, Publisher, TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com and BoomersNewsOnline.com