Cholesterol-lowering Drugs Most Profitable
Goal of Drug Companies: To Convince the Healthy They Need Drugs, so that their profits will soar.
If only sick people took medical drugs, then drug companies would not be making the enormous profits that they make today.
Side Effects of Cholesterol-lowering Drugs: Recent research, published only last week, shows that many people taking cholesterol-lowering drugs are not benefiting their health at all, and are possibly doing more harm than good by exposing themselves to their side effects.
The thing is, drug companies have convinced much of the Western world into believing that they are prolonging their lives through the taking of certain drugs. Warfarin and statins are examples of the drugs which they promote as being life-savers and prolongers of life.
Almost every second person I know who is over the age of 50 in New Zealand is taking warfarin, or some other cholesterol-lowering drug. And what is more, they accept that they will take this drug for the rest of their lives.
How has this happened? – Because vast fortunes have, and will be continued to be made, because of the psychological dependence which many people have on prescription drugs.
This state of affairs has been relatively easy to manipulate: Instill a little fear into the people, such as the threat of circulatory disease, tell them that lowering cholesterol will prolong life, and you have it made: They will buy your cholesterol-lowering products by the ton.
All you have to do is to get a bit of ‘research’ done into cholesterol, how lowering cholesterol can prevent heart attacks, get some articles published, and most people will believe that they need to take a trip to the doctor, get their cholesterol checked, and begin taking a commercial product to lower cholesterol.
An article appeared in the Weekend Herald, 22 January, 2011, written by James LeFanu, via the Telegraph Group Ltd, which is headed:
“Billions to be had convincing healthy they need drugs”: This article has some very interesting information regarding the drug companies’ manipulation of the facts, and the public, in order to make billions of dollars.
It states that Henry Gadsden, who was chief executive of Merck drug company in 1975, had expressed the wish that he could find a market for the sale of drugs to healthy people, because profits were limited whilst the sale of drugs were aimed at only sick people with treatable illnesses. If you could increase your sales to healthy people, obviously there would be a mint to be made.
Cholesterol Drug Scam
Well, as James LeFanu says in his article, the dream of this man has come true with the discovery of the ‘most profitable class of drugs ever discovered’. This most profitable class of drugs is the cholesterol-lowering statins. This line of drugs, which formerly made around $3billion annually for the drug companies, now makes close to $26 billion American dollars a year.
It makes more now, because the ‘safe limit’ of cholesterol which is written into doctors’ guidelines, has been pushed lower and lower, until it has reached absurdly low levels. Having such low levels of cholesterol as the guideline for good health means that almost everyone above the age of 40 or 50 now, who goes to the doctor for a check up, would fit into the category of needing a cholesterol-lowering drug. And THAT benefits the drug companies.
The wide spread use of the cholesterol-reducing drug Lovastatin began in 1987, when it was launched in America.
The drug companies began grooming the public, ready for the onslaught: Great effort was put into “educating” the public about cholesterol and its relationship to heart attacks and strokes. This was done on a national scale, with all the medical authorities on board the gravy train.
Who Should Take Lovastatin? Now, Lovastatin is a drug which could possibly be of benefit to people who have a predisposition to heart disease and strokes: Generally speaking, males under the age of 70 who have a history of heart disease and strokes in the family, could benefit from taking this drug, because of its cholesterol-lowering effect. But this does not mean that EVERYONE should benefit from it. NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO LOWER THEIR CHOLESTEROL OR REDUCE FATS TO A MINIMUM.
Drug Companies’ Goal of Mass Medicalization: However, drug companies had a goal of “mass medicalization”, and with the discovery of Lovastatin came the idea that they could ‘educate’ the masses into becoming ‘cholesterol conscious’ so that they might be easily convinced that they would benefit from taking statins to lower cholesterol.
Being ‘cholesterol conscious’ would entail making people nervous about eating any fatty foods, for a start. Convincing people to go to the doctor for a check-up, to get a cholesterol reading and a prescription for a cholesterol controlling drug if their cholesterol readings were a little high, was the next part of the plan.
Doctors Indoctrinated Too: Doctors were given ‘incentives’ to get people on these prescription drugs. Clinical trials of mammoth proportions accompanied this intensive profit-making project: Up to 10,000 people at a time were trialled on the grand cholesterol-lowering scheme which purported to be saving people’s lives. This had a tremendous effect on the profile of the drug, and the marketing of it. James LeFanu says:
“The effect of the inevitably favourable results generated evangelical enthusiasm for the project of “statins for all”.
Over 30 Million People Needlessly Taking These Drugs: Well, recent research has been revealed this last week,which shows that 3/4 of the people taking these drugs are taking them unnecessarily and are exposing themselves to the danger of their side effects. This is an awful lot of people: an estimated 40 million people in America alone take these drugs. If 3/4 of these people are not benefiting from these drugs, and are consequently jeopardizing their health, that’s 30 million people in America, not counting the rest of the people all over the world who are taking these drugs unnecessarily. Who benefits from this? The drug companies, of course, and they are all on the bandwagon: After Merck’s success with their cholesterol-lowering promotions, all the other drug companies followed suit with their own versions of the drug.
Well, according to James LeFanu, his dream has come true with the discovery of the ‘most profitable class of drugs ever discovered’. This most profitable class of drugs is the cholesterol-lowering statins.
In 1987, Lovastatin was launched in America. This is a cholesterol-lowering drug which could be of benefit to people who have a predisposition to heart disease and strokes.
Mass Medicalization: However, drug companies had a goal of “mass medicalization”, and with the discovery of Lovastatin came the idea that they could ‘educate’ the masses into becoming ‘cholesterol conscious’.
This ‘educating’ of the public took place on a national scale.
Being ‘cholesterol conscious’ would entail going to the doctor for a check-up, to get a cholesterol reading and a prescription for a cholesterol controlling drug.
to be continued