hese are the “legal” drug dealers that Congress is now taking on:
Once Democrats seized the committee chairmanships on Capitol Hill, the big drug companies sharply aligned with Republicans knew a period of reckoning was coming.
Now it has begun.
The Democrats’ investigations range from the drug-approval process to television advertising to the bilking of Medicare. And their targets include the world’s largest drug makers – and the Food and Drug Administration itself.
It’s about time something is done about these pushers. We have a serious problem when prescription drugs kill more people than illegal drugs. For example, here is how the FDA has ignored warnings on drugs:
Tuesday’s House oversight hearing focused on the fraud scandal surrounding the drug Ketek, an antibiotic that in some cases was found to cause liver damage.
After the clinical trials conducted by the drug’s manufacturer, Sanofi-Aventis, were found to have been fraudulent, Congress started asking who knew what – and when.
“There were sirens, red flags and bull horns, but it looks like the company and the FDA kept earplugs and blinders on,” said Grassley, who testified before the committee about his investigation into Ketek when he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “I smelled a coverup.”
The Republicans were quick to put the blinders on during the reign of power in Congress. They have shown that profit trumps life, and that has lead to these problems. Hopefully we can see some new, tougher legislation controlling these companies. Also we need to see new laws forcing the FDA to actually do what they are supposed to do.