So banks, MPs, politicians and the police are all corrupt...and now you can add drug manufacturers and some doctors...

[breadandbutterfly]

GlaxoSmithKline fined $3bn after bribing doctors to increase drugs sales

Sales reps in the US encouraged to mis-sell antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin and asthma treatment Advair

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals

Really shocking. A drug company that knowingly made totally unproven or false claims about their drugs, and doctors who knowingly took bribes of up to 1.5 mn to promote them.

And a $3 billion fine, compared to Barclays £290 million fine that has been garnering all the headlines.

Are all rich people just high class crooks? It seems so.

Didn't just make unproven claims, encouraged doctors to prescribe drugs to teenagers that Glaxo knew full well were ruddy dangerous for that age group. Clearly giving teenagers drugs that would cause some of them to commit suicide didn't matter as long as Glaxo was making money out of it.

Should add, clearly it wasn't all doctors and they were in the US rather than here. But how terrifying - that you could go to the doctor because you are ill and be given a drug that the manufacturers know will make you worse but which doctors have been bribed/lied to to convince them to prescribe it to you.

And a $3 billion fine! - but apparently a small fraction of the profits that Glaxo made over the same period from these drugs... :( Clearly crime still pays, even with a fine like that.

"Are all rich people just high class crooks? It seems so."

That's as inaccurate and prejudiced as saying 'all poor people are just benefit scroungers'.

It's not surprising at all. The pharmaceutical companies make vast amounts of money out of drug production, and the pharmaceutical industry is critical to the British economy, so politicians aren't inclined to look too closely at its corrupt practices.

What's surprising is that The Guardian has reported it.

You forgot to mention solicitors

What has brought you to the conclusion that all police officers are corrupt?

Yes, Depo-Provera was a huge scandal at the time.

That's why it's so amazing to me that people stick all sorts into their teen dds' arms.

I was talking about this with a friend who used to be a medical rep. He said that some reps actually gave doctors envelopes of cash. Don't doctors have to declare if they have been given rewards/sweeteners from drug companies?

He also said that he took a group of doctors on a white-water rafting holiday. As long as he gave them a ONE hour 'lecture' at the beginning of the trip, it could count as 'training'.

None of this is surprising.

DO doctors have to declare what they have received?

My old GP told me that the only things he would accept from drug companies were pens. But he also told me, with disapproval, that his colleagues went on trips to Amsterday and golfing holidays, courtesy of drug companies. If you went on these holidays, you were expected to be a 'top prescriber'. I would have thought that doctors were paid enough without needing these bribe-and-prescribe goodies.

"Top prescriber" -

And

Shocking.

vigglewiggle - not all police officers but you can hardly deny that there is massive corruption in the police - see for example all the phone hacking stuff - policemen accepting bribes, looking the other way... Stephen Lawrence trials... We have the trial over Tomlinson's death now. I was pushed to the ground by policemen at the student protests, like Tomlinson - luckily i don't have a serious pre-existing medical condition so am still here but no thanks to the police involved! - like him, I was not involved in the protests but walking past a line of slap-happy policemen...

policing of the riots was a joke and causation of what happened - had the police behaved appropriately from the start, they might never have happened or fizzled out quickly. etc etc.

That's just the recent stories I remember. I'm sure there are some good policemen, jut as there are some good MPs (I know one or two), and - well, if not good bankers, then at least non-criminal bankers...

It doesn't change the fact that the system is rotten inside and there are far too many bad apples, esp at the top, where it matters.

The problem in all of these area of life is that everyone who is not mired in corruption nonetheless stands by and lets it happen.

Whistle-blowers are completely doomed in the NHS and indeed worldwide. So if you want to be a doctor, you have to go along with the corruption.

There are some good police women too .

There are over 136,000 officers in England and Wales. You have highlighted some examples of corruption, incompetence, racism, and over-zealousness in a handful of incidents involving a small number of officers. This does not justify labelling the whole of the police service of England and Wales as corrupt.

I know this was not the main thrust of your argument and I don't mean to derail the thread, but I couldn't leave it unchallenged!

I am sure that most police officers are doing a good job in difficult circumstances and I am sure that most doctors are doing the same. But clearly some (doctors) are taking kickbacks. And I would love to hear from a doctor wrt to the bribe-to-prescribe racket. (Especially the cash).

Most Police Officers are honest and honourable in their day to day dealings with the public and with the criminals they deal with but, many of them let the service down because they turn a blind eye to the bad apples.

I really do think that the nub of the problem is that you don't survive in these professions if you fail to turn a blind eye to the bad apples.

Not least because the bad apples will have got to the top of the greasy pole.

Not sure if this is still going on, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's not just companies who pay doctors.

'GPs believe parents are reluctant to trust their advice about the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella jab because they receive a financial incentive to promote its use.'

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1399046/Doctors-debate-MMR-payments.html

Yes, doctors have kept very quiet about that, as well. You'd have thought a few of them might have raised a voice in protest before now. It's been going on long enough.

NOT surprising. Look up anti-seizure meds, birth defects and class action. Makes for horiffic reading - the drug companies continued to foist AED's on women of child-bearing age that they KNEW caused birth defects, long story, but suffice to say, the people whose DC were affected DIDN'T win...

Remember the claimed 'pandemic'?

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1248878/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-The-men-killing-swine-flue-wasted-1bn-exposed-harmful-drugs.html

As with Depo-Provera, they do a good job of covering up historical trails of medical damage. Lots of parents have no idea about damage caused by various drugs, and don't believe drugs would be available if not safe.

Even in hospitals the reps will come to wards with bagsand bags of food, pizza, doughnuts, etc. They talk about their product for ten mins and then leave loads of goodies, fairlyminor stuff like pens, USB sticks, pads of paper. All with the drug logo on.

I imagine GPs are targeted even more.