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Pharmageddon: A Nation Betrayed: A National Trial Lawyer Reveals an Industry Spinning out of Control
An unsettling, illuminating, and provocative discussion of a pressing political issue involving drug companies - Kirkus Review We've heard the stories. Pharmaceutical companies failing to warn of side effects. Marketing drugs illegally. Whistleblowers bringing incriminating evidence of corporate machinations leading to huge verdicts and settlements. And in this true-legal thriller, it all started with butterfly ballots putting a presidential election on hold.
Meet Stephen A. Sheller, an attorney whose career reads like an encyclopedia of the biggest legal cases of our time. Sheller fought tobacco companies and exposed fraud in their efforts to promote light cigarettes as safer than regular smokes, filed the first suit over the butterfly ballots in the controversial Bush v. Gore presidential election of 2000, and recovered a staggering $6.4 billion by going after pharmaceutical companies whose actions superseded patient safety.
A Nation Betrayed is the inside story of Sheller’s fights to hold accountable powerful pharmaceutical companies for aggressively campaigning for their product’s distribution in spite of dangers and side effects many prescription drugs carry. From uncovering the devastating effects on children and elderly to defending all of our rights in an increasingly complex legal system, Sheller has uncovered greed and avarice displayed by these multi-billion dollar corporations. Discover what happens when a legal champion takes up a cause.
Meet Stephen A. Sheller, an attorney whose career reads like an encyclopedia of the biggest legal cases of our time. Sheller fought tobacco companies and exposed fraud in their efforts to promote light cigarettes as safer than regular smokes, filed the first suit over the butterfly ballots in the controversial Bush v. Gore presidential election of 2000, and recovered a staggering $6.4 billion by going after pharmaceutical companies whose actions superseded patient safety.
A Nation Betrayed is the inside story of Sheller’s fights to hold accountable powerful pharmaceutical companies for aggressively campaigning for their product’s distribution in spite of dangers and side effects many prescription drugs carry. From uncovering the devastating effects on children and elderly to defending all of our rights in an increasingly complex legal system, Sheller has uncovered greed and avarice displayed by these multi-billion dollar corporations. Discover what happens when a legal champion takes up a cause.
205 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2016
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August 19, 2022
”Out of control”, as if it is not the Legislator who generated the problems in the first place. Love Big Brother, learn to show more gratitude to him by being like Sheller: a mindless servant.
And it seems to be about waving flags, and pumping up the nationalism. Never mind
- the politicians who got rich by making the laws
- the lobbyists who got rich making the politicians rich
- the army of lawyers protecting the trusts
- the army of truckers moving materials around
- the builders building the factories
- the people working in the said factories
- the pharmacists making a good living selling that crap
- the doctors making an even better living distributing that crap
- the countless insurance bureaucrats
- the leeches selling health insurance
- and others
Apparently all the above are illegal aliens coming in shipping containers, right?
And it seems to be about waving flags, and pumping up the nationalism. Never mind
- the politicians who got rich by making the laws
- the lobbyists who got rich making the politicians rich
- the army of lawyers protecting the trusts
- the army of truckers moving materials around
- the builders building the factories
- the people working in the said factories
- the pharmacists making a good living selling that crap
- the doctors making an even better living distributing that crap
- the countless insurance bureaucrats
- the leeches selling health insurance
- and others
Apparently all the above are illegal aliens coming in shipping containers, right?
April 30, 2017
The core of this book really at times had me saying at loud in disbelief, "Say What?!?"...because this book was written by a lawyer who has taken the drug companies to court over and over again. Now your first thought may have been the same as mine rolling my eyes, "Trial lawyer wants to talk about his own ego."
But in the cases that he had brought forward the results speak volumes. Almost $6.5 BILLION dollars have been paid by the drug companies to settle with him.
And its not because of the medicine. It's because of how the drug companies have behaved when it comes to marketing. In particular the practice known as 'off label' marketing. That is to target and identify people who could see a potential benefit from a drug but who do not have the diseases that the drug was approved for by federal agencies to treat. You want the most common example? Viagra as a drug first gained approval for heart patients. Is that what anyone with a functioning 'head' would use Viagra for? Off label marketing of drugs by drug sales reps and drug companies can expand and grow a business in the billions. Once a drug gets approved for anything it then becomes about persuasion. Some facts brought in this book that stood out?
- Right now 20 MILLION children are diagnosed with metal disorders that psychiatrists are prescribing drugs for. Some of these kids with these drugs cocktails have acted out violently or towards themselves. In one case a seven year old taking multiple anti psychotic drugs hung himself in a shower.
- Walgreens in collusion with a hospital group and Eli Lilly decided to send Prozac in the mail to potential customers as part of a Prozac weekly program. Several of the recipients (including a 17 year old and a 59 year old who sued) didn't have psychological problems. Sales reps had used a database with bad information. But in their database was potential patients who had been using competitors drugs and for doctors to get discounts they handed lists of potential patients to drug reps so that they could sell to them.
- Several of the drug companies in their off label marketing have been targeting kids. Two of the drug companies actually targeted kids who were in foster care because their medical care could be charged to states. Also in presentations drug companies lied not just to doctors but also federal regulators about drug effects where in public testimony in panels overseas they presented different data.
- An investigator inside one of the drug companies who turned whistle blower discovered that drug companies were paying secretly through consulting contracts chief medical officers for state boards who made decisions about buying of drugs. When he discovered these violations (which were felonies) he was demoted and sued for retaliation. Those officials later signed their states up for programs where the biggest benefits were given too...you guessed it...the drug companies.
A really interesting look inside at how drugs are marketed and how the money isn't in the medicine...its often in persuading you or your doctor that you need the drug for something it wasn't originally designed for...
But in the cases that he had brought forward the results speak volumes. Almost $6.5 BILLION dollars have been paid by the drug companies to settle with him.
And its not because of the medicine. It's because of how the drug companies have behaved when it comes to marketing. In particular the practice known as 'off label' marketing. That is to target and identify people who could see a potential benefit from a drug but who do not have the diseases that the drug was approved for by federal agencies to treat. You want the most common example? Viagra as a drug first gained approval for heart patients. Is that what anyone with a functioning 'head' would use Viagra for? Off label marketing of drugs by drug sales reps and drug companies can expand and grow a business in the billions. Once a drug gets approved for anything it then becomes about persuasion. Some facts brought in this book that stood out?
- Right now 20 MILLION children are diagnosed with metal disorders that psychiatrists are prescribing drugs for. Some of these kids with these drugs cocktails have acted out violently or towards themselves. In one case a seven year old taking multiple anti psychotic drugs hung himself in a shower.
- Walgreens in collusion with a hospital group and Eli Lilly decided to send Prozac in the mail to potential customers as part of a Prozac weekly program. Several of the recipients (including a 17 year old and a 59 year old who sued) didn't have psychological problems. Sales reps had used a database with bad information. But in their database was potential patients who had been using competitors drugs and for doctors to get discounts they handed lists of potential patients to drug reps so that they could sell to them.
- Several of the drug companies in their off label marketing have been targeting kids. Two of the drug companies actually targeted kids who were in foster care because their medical care could be charged to states. Also in presentations drug companies lied not just to doctors but also federal regulators about drug effects where in public testimony in panels overseas they presented different data.
- An investigator inside one of the drug companies who turned whistle blower discovered that drug companies were paying secretly through consulting contracts chief medical officers for state boards who made decisions about buying of drugs. When he discovered these violations (which were felonies) he was demoted and sued for retaliation. Those officials later signed their states up for programs where the biggest benefits were given too...you guessed it...the drug companies.
A really interesting look inside at how drugs are marketed and how the money isn't in the medicine...its often in persuading you or your doctor that you need the drug for something it wasn't originally designed for...
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