Americans continue to experience the results of that massive and very successful media campaign to fool the public.

The pharmaceutical industry enjoys annual profits of $400 billion. Its influence of the US Congress, fifty state legislatures and thousands of City and Town councils, is beyond any imagination.

Just as the tobacco industry knew of the dangers of smoking and misled the public, even lying to US Congressional committees, so too does the pharmaceutical industry. $400 billion buys a lot of access to public officials, a lot of ink, and a lot of broadcast time to promote drug use.

After many years of criticism the drug companies admitted that clinical trials (human experiments) which indicated dangers, were kept from the public. They only revealed positive results. This is a pattern of deception which regularly occurs in research due to conflicts of interest, due to control of the public discourse and due to influence of elected officials who write the laws.

In Cambridge where MIT and Harvard conduct taxpayer funded human experiments, little is known by taxpayers, or by local officials, who are more interested in protecting animals from research abuses than they are of protecting humans. Cambridge has a Commissioner of Laboratory Animals, but no commission for protecting humans. 

In September 2004, a book was released which documents many of the above abuses and more. Marcia Angell wrote "The Truth About Drug Companies: How they Deceive Us and What To Do About It." From a review of the book (Marcia Angell, The New York Review of Books, July 15, 2004,)  

" ... drug companies are now blanketing us with public relations messages."

" ... only a handful of truly important drugs have been brought to market in recent years, and they were mostly based on taxpayer funded research at academic institutions, small biotechnology companies, or the National Institutes of Health (NIH)."

" ... estimated total worldwide sales for prescription drugs [are] about $400 billion in 2002."

"... when a patent held by a university or a small biotech company is eventually licensed to a big drug company, all parties cash in on the public investment in research."

" ... nonprofit institutions started to see themselves as partners of industry, ... Faculty researchers were encouraged to obtain patents on their work (which were assigned to their universities), and they shared in the royalties."

"One of the results has been a growing pro-industry bias in medical research--exactly where such bias does not belong."

"Drug companies now employ small armies of lawyers to milk these laws [Bayh-Dole, and Hatch-Waxman] for all they're worth --and they're worth a lot."

"For example, if it did not like something about the FDA, the federal agency that is supposed to regulate the industry, it could change it through its friends in Congress."

Big pharma "is a vast marketing machine. Instead of being a free market success story, it lives off government-funded research and monopoly rights." Drug companies have the largest lobby in Washington, and they give copiously to political campaigns." The only powerful lobby omitted in this article is the human services industry.

The power of the drug companies dwarfs the influence of Harvard University and its $22.6 billion endowment, used to influence Cambridge and much of the Massachusetts state government. Of the Fortune 500 companies in 2002, ten were drug companies. The profit of the ten drug companies was more than the combined profits of the remaining 490 companies.

In October, 2003, the Cambridge City Council, the City Manager and the City Attorney joined together to thwart City ordinance and state laws, to grant special concessions to Harvard, for their misguided project along the Charles River in the Riverside neighborhood. In the film "Wag the Dog," Dustin Hoffman's character says, "This is nothing."

When drug companies were upset because Gary Ellis, Executive Director of the Office of Protection for Human Subjects, enforced the few laws regulating human experiments, the Secretary of Health and Human Services appointed a Harvard psychiatrist to replace him. Greg Koski, of Mass General Hospital tried to eliminate protections for human subjects. When the drug companies did not like the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration they arranged for a replacement. If they thought laws were limiting their profits, they had Congress change the rules for approval of new drugs.

One result of the accelerated time for approving new drugs is apparent after four other countries (England, Germany, Australia, and Canada) found dangers with the use of anti-depressants for children. In 2004, England completely banned use of anti-depressants for children. It took several years for the US Government to act after other countries established a scientific connection between drugs and suicide among children. This is America where the press is free to publish. Or not to publish if it hurts profits.

Profit driven government officials and journalists, are no longer dedicated to serving the voters. They serve themselves instead. This happens in Cambridge, on Beacon Hill and in Washington DC. Citizens lost the government to corporate greed and to the vanity of the politicians.    Over the course of many years the public relations efforts of former Cambridge resident, and nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, persuaded many persons that psychoanalysis was a credible medical practice. see John Stauber, "Toxic Sludge is Good for You.”

Americans continue to experience the results of that massive and very successful media campaign to fool the public.

The pharmaceutical industry enjoys annual profits of $400 billion. Its influence of the US Congress, fifty state legislatures and thousands of City and Town councils, is beyond any imagination.

Just as the tobacco industry knew of the dangers of smoking and misled the public, even lying to US Congressional committees, so too does the pharmaceutical industry. $400 billion buys a lot of access to public officials, a lot of ink, and a lot of broadcast time to promote drug use.

After many years of criticism the drug companies admitted that clinical trials (human experiments) which indicated dangers, were kept from the public. They only revealed positive results. This is a pattern of deception which regularly occurs in research due to conflicts of interest, due to control of the public discourse and due to influence of elected officials who write the laws.

In Cambridge where MIT and Harvard conduct taxpayer funded human experiments, little is known by taxpayers, or by local officials, who are more interested in protecting animals from research abuses than they are of protecting humans. Cambridge has a Commissioner of Laboratory Animals, but no commission for protecting humans. 

In September 2004, a book was released which documents many of the above abuses and more. Marcia Angell wrote "The Truth About Drug Companies: How they Deceive Us and What To Do About It." From a review of the book (Marcia Angell, The New York Review of Books, July 15, 2004,)  

" ... drug companies are now blanketing us with public relations messages."

" ... only a handful of truly important drugs have been brought to market in recent years, and they were mostly based on taxpayer funded research at academic institutions, small biotechnology companies, or the National Institutes of Health (NIH)."

" ... estimated total worldwide sales for prescription drugs [are] about $400 billion in 2002."

"... when a patent held by a university or a small biotech company is eventually licensed to a big drug company, all parties cash in on the public investment in research."

" ... nonprofit institutions started to see themselves as partners of industry, ... Faculty researchers were encouraged to obtain patents on their work (which were assigned to their universities), and they shared in the royalties."

"One of the results has been a growing pro-industry bias in medical research--exactly where such bias does not belong."

"Drug companies now employ small armies of lawyers to milk these laws [Bayh-Dole, and Hatch-Waxman] for all they're worth --and they're worth a lot."

"For example, if it did not like something about the FDA, the federal agency that is supposed to regulate the industry, it could change it through its friends in Congress."

Big pharma "is a vast marketing machine. Instead of being a free market success story, it lives off government-funded research and monopoly rights." Drug companies have the largest lobby in Washington, and they give copiously to political campaigns." The only powerful lobby omitted in this article is the human services industry.

The power of the drug companies dwarfs the influence of Harvard University and its $22.6 billion endowment, used to influence Cambridge and much of the Massachusetts state government. Of the Fortune 500 companies in 2002, ten were drug companies. The profit of the ten drug companies was more than the combined profits of the remaining 490 companies.

In October, 2003, the Cambridge City Council, the City Manager and the City Attorney joined together to thwart City ordinance and state laws, to grant special concessions to Harvard, for their misguided project along the Charles River in the Riverside neighborhood. In the film "Wag the Dog," Dustin Hoffman's character says, "This is nothing."

When drug companies were upset because Gary Ellis, Executive Director of the Office of Protection for Human Subjects, enforced the few laws regulating human experiments, the Secretary of Health and Human Services appointed a Harvard psychiatrist to replace him. Greg Koski, of Mass General Hospital tried to eliminate protections for human subjects. When the drug companies did not like the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration they arranged for a replacement. If they thought laws were limiting their profits, they had Congress change the rules for approval of new drugs.

One result of the accelerated time for approving new drugs is apparent after four other countries (England, Germany, Australia, and Canada) found dangers with the use of anti-depressants for children. In 2004, England completely banned use of anti-depressants for children. It took several years for the US Government to act after other countries established a scientific connection between drugs and suicide among children. This is America where the press is free to publish. Or not to publish if it hurts profits.

Profit driven government officials and journalists, are no longer dedicated to serving the voters. They serve themselves instead. This happens in Cambridge, on Beacon Hill and in Washington DC. Citizens lost the government to corporate greed and to the vanity of the politicians. 

One official who reflects this pattern is Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios (D-Harvard University). Lamenting the high price of drugs used by elderly citizens, he attacked the Bay State Governor, as if Mitt Romney set drug prices. Has Barrios ever attacked the pharmaceutical industry which sets those high prices? Do drug companies contribute to his campaigns?

Sepracor Corporation of Marlborough, MA, is run mostly by Harvard researchers. Their business is to enhance or to change drugs whose patent is about to expire. The purpose is to keep new drug prices artificially high, to maximize profits. I do not recall ever hearing Barrios attack this business enterprise, run by his supporters at Harvard.

One official who reflects this pattern is Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett Barrios (D-Harvard University). Lamenting the high price of drugs used by elderly citizens, he attacked the Bay State Governor, as if Mitt Romney set drug prices. Has Barrios ever attacked the pharmaceutical industry which sets those high prices? Do drug companies contribute to his campaigns?

Sepracor Corporation of Marlborough, MA, is run mostly by Harvard researchers. Their business is to enhance or to change drugs whose patent is about to expire. The purpose is to keep new drug prices artificially high, to maximize profits. I do not recall ever hearing Barrios attack this business enterprise, run by his supporters at Harvard.

[the printed version of this article was abridged]