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Monday 11 April 2011

Strattera, ADHD and Big Pharma double standards

Big Pharma will do anything to sell drugs. If banned in one place, they will sell them elsewhere. And they won’t necessarily tell patients ‘elsewhere’ of the problems the drugs have encountered.
Why is a pharmaceutical drug banned in one place and not another? It has often led me to wonder whether the citizens of one country are more able to cope with the drug than another. But it is not this, of course. It is the opportunism of Big Pharma - and their wish to sell any drug, however dangerous, to anyone, anywhere, at any time - and damn the consequences!
This situation has been well spotted in this webpage
Strattera is Lilly’s drug for ADHD. On its USA website they warn of an increased risk of suicide. In China it says nothing about this, or any other DIE. Instead, it tells the Chinese that unless they take the drug, they might contract ADHD! The say that the drug is ‘FDA approved’ - but does not mention that it has a ‘black box’ warning.
          “Lilly's arrogant disregard for patient safety is apparent in China, where the company aggressively promotes Strattera not only for ADHD but also for anxiety, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, tics, Tourette syndrome and God knows what else.
There is nothing ‘anti-chinese’ about this. People in the UK are not told that drugs have been banned in the USA; and vice versa. It appears to be standard Big Pharma behaviour.
          “Three years ago Eli Lilly agreed to remove false statements from strattera.com for the simple reason that Lilly was required to do so.   Today Lilly allows false statements on lillychina.com because the company is not required to remove them. 
As the website says, Lilly's ethical standards are questionable, to say the least. 
Mmmmm. That is to say the very least!