Even before a Clinton concession speech, Pharma stocks were hopping and Wall Street saluting over a Trump administration. No pesky price regulation over drugs like EpiPen! No pesky safety regulation over blood thinning drugs like drug Xarelto, linked to 500 deaths. No speed bumps when Pfizer et al seeks to dodge US taxes by incorporating overseas — the same taxes that fund their drugs in Medicare, TRICARE and other US programs.
Of course, Pharma did not need a Trump presidency. Its profit party began in earnest with the nomination and confirmation earlier this year of Robert Califf as FDA Commissioner despite financial links to 23 Pharma companies including Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck, Schering Plough and GSK according to a statement on the website of Duke Clinical Research Institute which he directed. In disclosure information for an article in Circulation, Califf also lists financial links to Gambro, Regeneron, Gilead, AstraZeneca, Roche and other companies and equity positions in four medical companies. Califf “served as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant or trustee for Genentech,” said the Medscape website. This is an FDA Commissioner?
In the past, someone so heavily funded by industry would not be considered for a government position regulating that very industry. Yet on PBS, Califf saw no problem with doctors and researchers receiving Pharma money and actually thought it desirable. “Many of us consult with the pharmaceutical industry, which I think is a very good thing,” he told host Susan Dentzer.
Two government institutes are also happily feeding the Pharma beast. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), says the institute is looking to Pharma to find a “vaccine” for drug addiction. What? Shouldn’t Volkow know, as head of the Institute, there is no “cure” or vaccine for addiction — that it is widely viewed as a physical, psychological and spiritual disease? Especially as opioid addiction-related deaths number in the thousands each year? Has she ever talked to Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy who, as an addict himself, advocates non-drug, non-Pharma, peer treatment for addiction? And shouldn’t NIDA replace the very dated term “drug abuse” with the non-judgmental term “addiction”?) Animal lovers will be appalled at what Volkow has done to primates in the lab only to conclude that maternal drug use affects offspring. No sh*t, Volkow.
Under the leadership of industry-friendly Thomas Insel, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has also been feeding the Pharma beast. Non-drug research is no longer even fundable, lamented a recent New York Times editorial. Insel, an early proponent of SSRI antidepressants which he said worked better and faster than non-drug psychotherapy, left government to work at a billion dollar, semi-secret private venture between Google and Pharma last year that few are even aware of. The CEO of the new Google life sciences venture is former Genentech chairman Art Levinson. Insel, while NIMH director, said that not enough toddlers were on stimulants for ADHD even as the nation was aghast at how many children are dosed.
As Trump moves toward the Oval Office, many feel his election does not represent popular sentiment — the same disconnect seen with Pharma. Public anger at Pharma and its outrageous prices is at a peak but regulatory firewalls are evaporating and alarming conflicts of interest tolerated.
In February a smirking Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, refused to explain or defend his price hike of the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 on the Hill, a price hike that could put the life-saving drug out of reach for some. With clear derision for regulators and the public itself, he tweeted that lawmakers were “imbeciles” after he testified. Then Mylan jacked the price of its EpiPen, an emergency allergy treatment that saves lives, to $600 up from the $100 almost overnight this summer. After public uproar, Mylan offered EpiPen cost breaks to low-income people — a common Pharma ruse that simply shifts costs to others while letting Pharma keep its prices. Meanwhile hepatitis C drugs that cost $84,000 a course of treatment are looting our Medicaid tax dollars in strapped states.
No, Pharma did not need a Trump presidency for a profit party — but the rejoicing will be merrier. Enjoy your overseas incorporations and tax dodges, Pharma.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.