This posting to serve 2 series of this journal "Health Care Reform" & "Pharmaceutical Cash Cow's". The biggest news today is Pope Francis on Capitalism Hill (aka Capitol Hill) of course addressing the House, and on a personal note from one man (me) to another (Pope Francis) ... my heart goes out to him, for having to spend the time he did addressing this dysfunctional and corrupt bunch we have in politics ... which seem's as hopeless as having to address his own Vatican's Curia, while mainstream media is saying ... maybe the Pope's appearance will change some of the minds in Congress, so they can work together, etc ... but I myself doubt it, and figure they will be back to the same crap as usual the next session. I wanted to do a posting on this in particular because of the wide outrage and coverage on Martin Shkreli in mainstream news over the last few dayz over the outrageous increase to the Daraphim drug, Martin is said to be one of the most hated people in America right now, and some recent news about the pharmaceutical increases we been seeing and what's to come I added too. I linked some newsread and video below first, then after that I will add my views and input to this, then to close the posting with a prescription drug commercial parody.
***** NEW YORK TIMES: Prescription Drug Costs Are Rising as a Campaign Issue ... (newsread)
***** OPEN SECRETS.ORG: Influence & Lobbying- Pharmaceuticals/ Health Products
***** THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY: (Wendell Potter commentary) OPINION: Big Pharma's stranglehold on Washington
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***** USA TODAY: Turing pharma CEO recedes from public after backtracking on drug price hike ... (newsread & video)
Ex- hedge funder who hiked AIDS pill cost by 5,500 percent says drug 'still underpriced' ... Thanx to US UNCUT
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***** PD/ RCJ: "HEALTH CARE REFORM: another "FORM" of "REFORM" ... PART'S 6 THRU 1
***** PD/ RCJ: "PHARMACEUTICAL CASH COW'S" PART'S 4 THRU 1
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(Bear with Me) Thomas Hudson Pickering (aka "Ranch Chimp" & "Commie Tommie") with daughter "Bear"
So many are angry and outraged over this price hike by Martin Shkreli, some want him killed, punched out, beaten etc ... others say karma will come back and bite him in the ass and he will burn in Hell, "Karma" for these folks is making an investment and getting a huge return on money ... "Hell" for them, is losing a bunch of money ... it's ALL about the buck/ dollar. The visit of the Pope took a little spotlight off him in MSM. Pharma prices are going through the roof, and we all knew this was coming if we listened to the news for several years now, and looking at the legislation in Washington, and looked at the big pharma lobby buying power. America today is a living 24/7 drug store, and many have so many drugs in them, they need more drugs just to counter the side effects of the drugs they have in them, so its not only about serious diseases or illnesses, cancer or such. As for "prescription" drugs, you have a drug for every damn thing ... wake up without a shit eating grin on your face, or the wrong side of the bed? ... there is a drug to fix that ... bored or excited? ... we got a drug to control that too ... angry or loathe what you hear from the bullshit establishment? ... we got a drug for that ... do you fart or snore? ... we got a drug for that ... feel like not having sex or oversexed? ... got something for that too ... your kidz school cant get your kidz 100% atencion, because of a boring teacher or topic? ... they got drugs to fix that, for your kidz too, etc., and the list goes on. We have become dependent on drugs, there has been hardly any capping or control on pricing, and the sapping of the general public is enormous ... it has become the price of life for many today. What's shocking to me is now politics is jumping in after the fact ... Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton immediately jumped on it targeting Shkreli, my question is where has she stood on this issue before? ... I know that Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders has fought this sort of thing for awhile, so it's not new for him. I havent heard anything yet out of GOP/ Republican candidates, which surprised me, since they are so "pro- life" as well as "pro- war on drugs", and even threatening to shut down the government again unless they can stop Planned Parenthood funding ... an old familiar threat that we get out of Congress now on a bi- annual basis it seem's.
Sure ... Martin Shkreli is of course a hustler, an entrepreneur, ex- hedge fund manager, probably worth about $100 million and a company net worth of maybe a tad over a half billion from what I read, which looks like small potatoes compared to these large pharma giants ... he has Wall Street written all over him, was fired from the last firm he was with and has a mega lawsuit against him. But Mr.Shkreli is not the villain he is being painted as, or "personification of evil" as one person put it I read ... he is doing on a small scale, what the biggest pharma corporations are doing, many doing worse to the consumer than he is on some of their moves, they have armies of lobbyists, and spending in the billions to control and write legislation. What about all our so called representation in Congress and our Senate? ... what have they done to try to get any kind of control over this? ... NOT A DAMN THING!!, they have allowed (both of these political sides) this to grow and grow to the proportion it is today ... where is the BLAME to anyone else besides Shkreli? I dont know much about the pharma industry, and even get more confused reading all the new laws and rules in health care and insurance today, having to read multiple times to try to halfway understand it ... but my question is ... why is America's prices for pharmaceutical's and health care, the most outrageous prices in the entire world? ... and no ... I dont blame it exclusively on the cost of research. When I see politicians highsiding and acting outraged or shocked, I think ... how bloody damn hypocritical to find a guy like this, and all of the sudden blame the whole thing on him, BUT ... that's what many politicians do as history shows. Where is the media mainstream in prime time tele/ TV of your largest networx, every bloody night pushing and peddling drugs in commercials to everyone, showing happy families and music, while listing a long list of side effect's, and to NOT use without the advice of a pharmacist or doctor, basically exempting "themselves" from litigation, and many of the drugs for the most part are not even "life saving" drugs.
Yes, I think the price increase by Mr.Shkreli was enormous, and I dont believe that he is just in the business to save lives, but I also dont think that he is out to attack people with AIDS as some say. I know he is a hustler, and know that he buys like everyone else to turn and make a profit ... on the other hand, if he did come up with a new drug to be used, that ends up saving many lives through any research he invests in ... he would then be labeled as a hero, especially if he had the muscle in Washington that so many pharma corporations have and large influence in major mainstream media. This Daraphim that Shkreli bought been around over a half century, it was a go nowhere drug that just stayed quiet and only had use for a small percentage of people, who else wanted it?, or where was any incentive to? ... who bothered to try to buy it?, research it?, and try to make something out of it or improve or widen it's purposes? Is it not true of the costs factor's in research and development and getting a new drug out on the market and the rest that Shkreli talks about? Of course he now admits that the pricing he done was too much and he said that he will reduce it ... it is outrageous ... but what "wrong" is he doing that the others in the industry are NOT doing? When there is hardly any rules in place to stop or at least try to control pricing to some extent and government legislation is only drafted by these mega corporations ... where is any reason for anyone to put cap's on themselves ... where is the incentive? Why with this particular drug, since we are all about love and being humanitarians in todayz corporate world with love of humanity in mind ... is no one else trying to do anything to improve the product that is out there, or even prepare for when these strains become resistant to the current medicines we use? All of these folks are profit driven, not just Shkreli. Enough from me ....
Word Out ....
*HILARIOUS COMMERCIAL* PRESCRIPTION DRUG SUPERFLUOUS ... Thanx to JAE TRACIE
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
***** RCJ/ THOMAS PICKERING: GOOGLE+ (video posts)
***** THE RESISTANCE/ PERIL'S OF THE POWER POSSE (inspiration for hope & change) ... to be viewed as a "profit- see", not a "prophecy".
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