The myth that the consumer is in any way protected by the Fooled and Drugged Administration is blowing up once again.
Can’t say we’re surprised, since in the past we had helped expose how the FDA helped corporate greedsters to hoax millions out of people who depended on the extract of the autumn crocus (Colchicine) which costs about 20-cents a pill in Mexico. But here in the US,, for a while, the cost of the pill was north of $8 dollars a pill.
In the FDA’s defense, the drug greedsters had suggested that there would be “more research” if they just had the money to fund it. Obligingly, the FDA – notorious for playing the “captive regulator” game, let them have it despite there being more than 1,700 studies – not to mention almost 2,000 years of human use trials to pick through – already done and on file.
All they needed to do was look and think. Fat chance, boyz…
Not familiar with the “captive regulator” game?
Well, here’s how it works.
Say you get out of college and want to “do some good” in the world. Your degree in a health sciences field in hand, you land a low to mid-level job with the FDA.
You work there long enough to get partially vested in the FedGov separate – and way better than Social Security – system.
Then you land a job in Big Pharma doing something quasi-related to your expertise, but really the reason you get hired is to lobby and since you knew everyone from the FDA you worked with, you make big bucks.
After a while, having made a small fortune, not to mention a pile of stock options, you go back to work for the FDA or closely allied agency.
Rinse and repeat a couple of times and you’re gdolden – for Life!
This is not to say everyone in the FDA has their hands in the cookie jar.
But now let’s fast forward to the next well-studied drug that is being used to screw consumers: EpiPens.
This is a device, formerly sold for much, much cheaper, that here is the US is selling for upwards of $500.
My daughter Denise – a consumer crusader who lands in the hospital if you so much as SAY the word “peanut” loudly – and who publishes a fine blog on peanut allergies over here – has been interviewed a number of times because although it is illegal, she occasionally will go to Canada to buy an EpiPen for $100 (or less). Pays for the trip and a lot more.
Consumer outrage is a pretty violent thing, or so it appears if you follow the price of Mylan stock – since they are the people making and selling the EpiPens.
Their stock got hammered yesterday to the tune of nearly $3-billion of market cap.
There’s a pretty good piece on U.S. Uncut that explains the background of this as the brainchild of CEO Heather Bresch…
“Bresch, who is the daughter of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), eventually became Mylan’s CEO, and subsequently raised her own salary by 671 percent. And in 2014, Bresch reincorporated Mylan in the Netherlands, utilizing a controversial accounting tactic known as “inversion,” lowering the company’s effective tax rate while still maintaining its headquarters and manufacturing base in the US.”
Meantime, the Senate Judiciary Committee is likely to hold hearings into the Mylan business practices and more than 147,229 people (*including me) have signed the petition over here demanding a Mylan rollback.
Why isn’t CONgrease already asking how many Mylan’ers went into gov’t and visa versa?
The REAL Long-term Fix
As good students of longwave economics – and having just explained again the other day how the global financial system almost blew up in 1974 due to the failure of derivative settlements involving Herstatt Bank, we have a modest idea to save the world from global revolution.
You see: Derivatives are continuously settled and this prevents systemic imbalances from taking down the whole world.
What I would propose is that the current election process be speeded up.
It is absurd that we have Hillary launching a KKK “racism attack” on Trump while at the same time, we see the NY Times has launched a new “Race” newsletter. (Hey: Let’s make a business model out of race shall we?) Yes, we live in absurd times, do we not?
What I propose is that elections get up on the Internet and settle continuously.
In this way, crooks like Pay2SeeHer and this Mylan price-jacking adventure wouldn’t be issues for long. We need more forensic economists.
One “outrage cycle” in instant online elections (and continuous settlement of politics) would fix everything. The crooks would be out on their ears.
Too simple? Oh hell yeah.
Look, I can pay my electric bill online right now…I can move money from my TreasuryDirect account into checking, or into one of my trading accounts.
But for some reason, the same computer technology isn’t gpod enough to get the crafty weasel-dicks out of office except once every four years…(2-years for Congreasoids) and then only after 6-months of brainwashing of the most stupid, TV-addicted simpletons in the world…lord ‘o Goshen……
GMAFB…where did the America I grew up in go? Yeah…that’s what I’m talkin’ – the Can Do and Kick-Ass and Take-Names place?
Not the land of the absurdly correct, bow down to wimps, pay-off terrorists, respect the whiners, and kissers of the corporate butts… FMTT.
Mylan stock may go down further. Nothing would surprise me less.
The American Middle class is sick and tired of the same-old shit and when lobbyists scam on med pricing at the same time Obamacare is heading down the flusher, the lynch mobs hit the web.
Mylan should have known better. And if they have a freaking clue, President Useless and his anointed successor and the Fools on the Hill better WTFU to what is going on out here in fly-over country.
Two R dangerous words are kicking around out: Rage and Revolution. (Resentment and repugnant are optional.)
Speaking of Which Witch
Hillary better STFU on Trump and Klan, lest people with better memories than hers (damaged post-Benghazi it seems) will remind the frigging world that one of the key Klansmen was none other than a leading DEMOCRAT:
In the early 1940s, Robert Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia.[12][13]
According to Byrd, a Klan official told him, “You have a talent for leadership, Bob …
So yeah, the Klan is a democratic group. Maybe a few have lost their way and will vote for Trump, but how long was the Klan Byrd in Washington was it? And how many Byrd brains are still there? The victimizing the poor and exporting American jobs hasn’t slowed now, has it?
Still, it seems to work – thanks to the gullible masses, the Clinton News Network and others. In the polls this morning she up on Trump from 3 to 10 points.
Hey…suddenly it’s clear: If people will buy Hillary, maybe they can buy Mylan stock, too!
(Gee, that was good for me…how about you?)
Now the Boring Economics Stuff
GDP’ing:
And then we have detail level on corporate profits going up while GDP is sliding:
Corporate Profits (table 12) Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation adjustment and capital consumption adjustment [CCAdj]) decreased $24.1 billion in the second quarter, in contrast to an increase of $66.0 billion in the first. Profits of domestic financial corporations increased $7.2 billion in the second quarter, compared with an increase of $8.1 billion in the first. Profits of domestic nonfinancial corporations decreased $58.2 billion, in contrast to an increase of $84.8 billion. The rest-of-the-world component of profits increased $26.9 billion, in contrast to a decrease of $26.9 billion. This measure is calculated as the difference between receipts from the rest of the world and payments to the rest of the world. In the second quarter, receipts increased $19.8 billion, and payments decreased $7.1 billion.
Ask yourself how many companies have done Mylan-like inversions in order to keep the US label and dodge the tax bullets and flip them to the shareholders?
Market futures are about dead flat as we publish…
Reader Note
I will stop writing about politics September 1 in order not to influence the election. People are stupid enough and my tutoring has either helped by now or not…
Another problem with the FDA is that it accepts funding from companies that want to fast track their NDAs.
The only solution to our healthcare system is universal coverage. It works pretty well in the rest of the world. But here in the US we’re content to allow insurance companies to stand between us and our providers while extracting blood from us.
I saw a purported old photo of college-aged Hilary in blackface last week (Bill was shirtless and in overalls, looking mighty fine). Bet that wont show up anywhere on the MSM!
Send it off in your email and facebook chain, then watch and see it make it ALL the way around the world. Come on, I dare you! Send it to George if you are too much of a scaredy cat!
Great report cesspool connuts and sennuts stupid americans to vote hilwitch
‘That person’ who supposedly is running Mylan, is suffering from ‘Big Head’ – an affliction characterized by the inability to understand that if you are associated with causing a problem that affects people adversely, getting in front of cameras to ‘magically’ explain it away will only make the problem worse as people now know that you are full of s**t. The ‘Big Head’ sufferer will now exclaim that it isn’t their fault and that no one understands. (Thing is, people really do understand.)
A smart CEO would have been immediately aware and fixed it, or perhaps not done it in the first place.
Ay sir, that’s an exact description of myself. Since I can’t repair that gaping racist hole at the bottom of my butt, I’ll act like a 5 yr old and call people names. And poor white dudes, guess what? I’m a 1% percenter with no clue about your predicament. My dad rolled my career with a million bucks, and I love my tax loopholes! (That’s why I’m the only candidate in 40 yrs who hasn’t released his tax returns).
She is IN it for the MONEY; a TRUE DEmoncrat!!! She learned at the foot of a master! She thought she was too big to fail! HAHAHAHAHA!!!! TIME IS CATCHING UP WITH THESE THIEVES!!!
Love ure rage today you hit the nail on the scammer
George, you are probably a greater mismatch for living in the USA than most expats who repatriate FROM Ecuador are for Ecuador. Life is simply too short to live in a place you despise.
Instead of monetizing her affliction (so American) I suggest that your daughter get that peanut allergy eliminated, because there are long term side effects from chronic epi-pen use. It’s a business model with a death wish built in. Anyone with allergies that intense are suffering from a compromised immune system, and that leads to chronic illness later in life.
http://Www.naet.com
Allergies in this day and age are optional. NAET worked for me, it worked for my sons, and it worked for my wife, an RN who has been medically tested and found free of allergies.
I used that method too and “healed” an allergy to eggs.
“I will stop writing about politics September 1 in order not to influence the election. People are stupid enough and my tutoring has either helped by now or not…”
I’m going to have to vote NOT on that idea. In general I agree with your concept, but, the idea that people won’t be swayed in the last few weeks and have their brains rewired at the last moment by some ad or event is unlikely. To my eyes the last few weeks is where many make their decision. Yes the info won’t really change, the past actions of candidates will indeed impact their decisions when the stress of the office hits them during critical situations, and they’ll fall back into previous thought processes with ease. So to not point out completely absurd things, obvious contradictions, and sheer audacity of the MSM with regards to this election probably doesn’t do service to those that need it here. Long way of saying don’t back off providing a bit of logical and tempered insight toward the insanity of the day as the elections approach.
what about the Insulin price hike? and the lack of research for any alternate substance ?? and the fact that both Insulin and the Epi Pen are much cheaper everywhere else?? Somehow fleecing the US consumer is the best game in town.
Been going on for YEARS!!! And a shameful game it is!!!
Insulin is actually a much larger problem than the EpiPen. 30-odd years ago, when most insulin was refined from Pig- and Cow-pancreas-squeezings as a by-product of the meat packing industry, the bean-counters noticed that the demand for insulin from animal sources was getting close to the amount of animal pancreases available to provide it– A sort of “Peak Pancreas.”
So currently, almost all insulin is a product of genetically-engineering E. coli to produce insulin in giant culture tanks. These are fragile, ill bacteria that rely on very very high technology to produce insulin. Heaven help all diabetics if civilization falls to the point where it can’t be made that way anymore. Of course, some diabetics could go back to pancreas squeezings, but only the uber rich (ie., those with a large herd of pigs) could afford it.
Note to self– Get some pig pancreases from the local butcher and learn how to get insulin out of them. This could be just the niche industry that will take me (or you) through the beginning of the coming Dark Age…
OT, but maybe not…
http://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/lawmaker-wants-to-regulate-cajun-navy
So government guys even want to regulate helping and rescuing people during hurricanes and floods.
FMTT. Government is only good at two things – taking money and getting in peoples way trying to make it through their world.
Okay, let me explain it a different way – they don’t want to be rescuing your sorry butt, when your ‘dingy’ is floundering as you are ‘saving’ people.
Out where I live – people would be all over the hills and mountains trying to find lost people – decades ago there was the case of ‘the little cowboy’ who got lost while his family were moving their cattle – and ‘good citizens’ were helping and the first responders had trouble sorting who was who – and the kids was ‘found’ (or rather his horse – alive, and bits and pieces of the kid years later). He probably had died anyway, but the extra people did not help.
Leave the work to the professionals (and the people authorized). Please!
George, if you think the polls, (re Trump), are not just as manipulated as the Lame Stream Media, then I have a deal you will be interested in. Recently I found out a cool way to buy the Oakland Bay Bridge. Is that great or what? Let me know if you are interested.
“I will stop writing about politics September 1 in order not to influence the election.”
So… as a writer you are voluntarily giving up your first amendment rights? Don’t you dare! Besides, I wonder how long you could keep it all bottled up before you explode. This election needs all the grass-roots influence we can give it. Write-On, George!
As a first step, Denise should find a good bio-compatible dentist and have ALL her mercury amalgam fillings removed. (I’m betting she has some!) When I had this done, my allergies and a plethora of seemingly unrelated health issues just went away. Organic mercury poisoning is insidious and masquerades as many different problems.
“Amalgam Illness” by Dr. Andrew Hall Cutler is THE reference book and guide for this problem. It saved my life. Book is available from Amazon or:
http://amalgamillness.com/
Agreed!!! Your voice IS important, and WE expect you to keep it up!!!
As a first step, Denise should find a good bio-compatible dentist and have ALL her mercury amalgam fillings removed. (I’m betting she has some!) When I had this done, my allergies and a plethora of seemingly unrelated health issues just went away. Organic mercury poisoning is insidious and masquerades as many different problems.
“Amalgam Illness” by Dr. Andrew Hall Cutler is THE reference book and guide for this problem. It saved my life. Book is available from Amazon or:
http://amalgamillness.com/
Hello, George. Possible life saver: What is the main ingredient in most over-the-counter asthma inhalers? Answer: EPINEPHRINE! Anyone with such allergies NEEDS to keep one (epinephrine asthma inhaler) handy as a backup, just in case. Just thought I’d try to help.
Later.
Robert
Hi all,
It is true, up here in Canada a single EpiPen is available without prescription and is about $100 CDN (About $70.00 US). But there is another possible solution for people like your daughter that can’t afford an EpiPen; Before there were EpiPens, we used to make “Anaphylaxis Kits” consisting of an ampule of 1:1000 Epinephrine, a filter needle, a syringe, a couple of alcohol swabs and a 1″ 20-gauge needle. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of cracking open the ampule, and drawing up the dose (not to mention the IM injection)– But OTOH, epinephrine ampules are very cheap and have a longer shelf life. You could get 5 ampules with their associated supplies for much less than the cost of a Canadian EpiPen, practice injecting an orange with 3 of them, and still be ahead. And when the ampules expire in 4 or 5 years, just replace the ampules…
While we are talking, have you noticed that AntiTrust regs no longer apply to the big boys? In the US, 97% of all retail pharmacy trade is controlled by CVS + Walgreens. These guys are so big that nothing either one of them does can fail to be noticed by the other, so you have an effective monopoly…
Ditch the insurance companies, go with a health sharing ministry like Samaritan Ministries, Liberty Health Share, etc. Just Do IT!
Yes I am angry that the greedy pharmaceuticals can jack up the price when they see an opportunity. Kind of like doubling the price of generators after a hurricane. I developed an allergy to bee stings in my early fifties, never bothered me before and I had been stung many times as I worked in land surveying.
I now have two out of date epipens so I guess it’s a couple of benedryls and head for the emergency room. Thanks to the poster who mentioned the inhalers.
Off topic, a friend of mine and I were talking and he said “do you remember when we were younger bugs constantly hitting the windshield at night”. I said yes I remember but now I hardly ever hit bugs at night. What has happened to the night bugs? We live in Georgia and there used to be plenty around especially at night.
Any smart CEO would have a basic knowledge of economics and have access to marketing and quants. The only excuse for this particular female victim of the Peter Principle is incompetence and narcissism.
Regarding the FDA, their only LEGITIMATE function is to make sure that each product is labeled accurately. Everything else they do, including “enforcement actions”, aka SWAT, are mission creep that needs to be eliminated.
As an individual, my health is my business and mine alone. I refuse to use the health care “system” and resent having to indirectly fund it. I can’t even get a decent fee for service rate if I pay cash! That’s unacceptable. They have nothing to offer that I want anyway.
George, don’t back-off on election material because the absurd will only get worse as we get closer to November and I besides I look forward to you pointing out the manufactured lies and the imbalanced reporting.
Get this I cant afford cataract surgery, despite my husband paying 800.00 for a hmo. I havent meet my dedicable of 5,500 yet out of pocket for the year. So I was told to get the exam and then they will see what I need to pay. I can barely see I am only 62 years old. Wow, should have had it done 10 years ago, my fault.