Wednesday November 28, 2012, 6:47 am
Has anyone noticed the 'kids and stress' advertisements on the right hand side of Care2 for a few weeks now? With a link to 'More Than Medication. ca'. This is a website of Pfizer Canada, part of the biggest pharmaceutical company on earth. Talk about Big Pharma.
If you make mega mega BILLIONS by manufacturing and selling drugs, a few hundred thousand dollars to tout exercise, eating right, and breathing right are useful for PR (public relations) campaigns to ally yourself to the public as just a regular Joe looking out for your health like everyone else....

Pfizer is one of the single largest lobbying interests in U.S. politics.
According to the EPA, Pfizer is among the top ten companies in America with the most numerous emissions sources.
In 2009 they agreed to a 1.2 billion dollar criminal fine, the largest in U.S. history for what gov't. lawyers said was fraudulent marketing of drugs.
Just recently, Oct. 8/12 Pfizer Inc has agreed to pay $164 million to settle a shareholder class action accusing the drug maker of misrepresenting the clinical trial results for Celebrex, an arthritis drug.

And now they have had their socks blown off by this Supreme Court of Canada ruling regarding Viagra.
Btw, what did Pfizer instantly do? Lower it's prices for Viagra to be competitive with generics. I'll leave it up to intelligent people to make their own conclusions there.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 7:40 am
Hmmmm.... I wonder if the Canadian system is paying for these pills. Do they also pay for birth control pills.

I realize that I am off-topic a bit. I find it ridiculous that here in the US, medicare will pay for Viagra but we can't have the government paying for birth control. Where is the sense in that?

I think we get different ads based on our interestes. I have not seen the ad you are mentioning. But also location, I am not in Canada.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 8:58 am
check out the latest attempt to cripple children:

http://www.care2.com/causes/temper-tantrums-new-psychiatric-disorder.html

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 10:29 am
There are some drugs that should NEVER be sold over the counter, and some drugs that should remain expensive and NOT be covered by Medicare or any medical insurance plan.
As far as I'm concerned, Viagra is a recreational drug and should be highly taxed and kept out of the hands of young people who can be harmed by it...and that includes generic forms of it.

The cost of crucial drugs is prohibitive to some people who need them to stay alive...ie: asthma medication....and the drug companies should keep the prices high on the recreational drugs like Viagra, to make it possible to put a more affordable and reasonable price on crucial drugs that some people depend upon to stay alive.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 10:48 am
I dunno much about this here actually but you are right Kenneth about the all out theft from folks just because companies keep the patent on them. Lipitor is a good example of that. I have found that some drugs that are generic do not work as well as others. Lipitor being one of them. Have tried the generic brands and they really upset my stomach so have to pay big money for the 'real' one.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 12:12 pm
Why can't we have the full information about drug pricing? Some must truly be expensive to research and manufacture but others appear to be priced by what the market will allow.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 12:27 pm
Kenneth, I think Nancy is right about the ads. -- I finally realized I get ads for topics I've been researching -- it's the same on facebook.

Thanks for this article -- Pfizer is also part of Pharmacia Upjohn (the infamous Halcion maker) and partners now with Monsanto.

I recommend John Perkins talks (talking freely -- and his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) about the "corporatacracy" -- about how we got into this mess and how to get out of it -- the drug industry is just one symptom of the whole dysfunctional system that must change before it destroys us and the environment.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 4:17 pm
Noted. Thanks.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 5:01 pm
Excellent Nancy:)
I find it ridiculous that here in the US, medicare will pay for Viagra but we can't have the government paying for birth control. Where is the sense in that?

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 5:05 pm
Thanks Kenneth for posting this interesting article, It is always about making money even though some of these drugs are bad for you.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 5:27 pm
Noted

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 7:48 pm
@ Nancy M --- To answer your question, viagra is covered in BC, but so are contraceptives. But as Cam V says, the generic versions of some drugs like Lipitor are available now, and depending on the person, may or may not work as well. In fact, there has been an advertising campaign here by the makers of Lipitor saying that people have the right to chose between the real thing and the generic. The BC government negotiates drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies to bring lower prices to BC residents on many drugs, but not all. And there are some drugs that are not covered --- I take 2 drugs for diabetes that work well for me but they are not covered but they help with blood sugar control. The government says use more insulin which I take, but these drugs work in different ways on different organs. A total lack of understanding on this by those responsible for approving drugs for Pharmacare. And there are also some cancer drugs that fall into these black pits.

As far as the ads, the ads are from google I believe so are targeted to your location. Kenneth, I do see these ads you're talking about.

@ Heidi H --- The R&D of drugs is very expensive and I believe that while the drugs are under patent, they will stay expensive in hopes of recouping the costs of R&D. Once the patent expires, then the generic brands can come out and they lower their prices. That's part of the reason that this SCC case with Pfizer is so important --- the patent was off in 2014, but now it comes off in 2012 and Pfizer loses that exclusivity and a year + worth of profits.

Good post Kenneth.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 11:00 pm
Noted,thanks.

Wednesday November 28, 2012, 11:24 pm
Oh I see Lynn, you mean Canadian ads to Canadians etc. That makes sense as I've also been seeing Quebec resort holiday trip ads and I wondered what's with all the Canadian ads. No wonder I barely got a peep out of this when I posted it in the F&S group.

Btw, I just saw recently where Lipitor and grapefruit juice can be a deadly mix. Check it out on Google.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 12:19 am
260 quintillion chemicals!!! Did I read that correctly?! And yet none of those was the active ingredient - well I am surprised (not!) that a drug company has been lying again - and to the Supreme Court!

Susan V - if I understand you correctly you are getting ads for things you have been looking up on the net without you asking for them - then you sound as though you are being tracked by one of the many sneaky and secretive companies on the web who are selling information about you to anyone - and that info can be sold on to anyone.... I got' Do Not Track Plus' - and there are doubtless others - and that has stopped 181,742 attempts at tracking me in the last year - as the founder of Firefox said - it is like being stalked! (We also need to clean our computers regularly as they seem to sneak their programs in with cookies...).

Thursday November 29, 2012, 1:03 am
Thanks Kenneth. Yes my Lipitor, which I have been taking now for years even though I don't have a cholesterol problem (take it because I am diabetic), comes with a warning about eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice. Apparently, when I asked the paharmacist about this, I was told the grapefruit amplifies the effect of Lipitor and can, depending on how much you take, have very negative effects. I take a very low dose and only have a small amount of grapefruit if I'm really feeling deprived --- like one section. Haven't had any for probably 8 months but was really getting itchy for some a few weeks ago.

Yup. I get some of the Québec ads too, and all in French. Fortunately, I understand them. Just saw a Pfizer ad for a medications.ca website (name may be off a bit but you get the picture --- it was the 3rd one I've seen about stress and Pfizer.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 5:57 am
Thanks Kenneth, the word needs to get out about pharmaceutical companies and I agree that there is something really wrong with a system that covers ED drugs and not contraceptives, it doesn't make sense at all.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 6:00 am
Yes, that's the one I was talking about in my first post Lynn, it's 'more than medication.ca' from Pfizer Canada, which of course is part of Pfizer worldwide, the biggest Big Pharma in the world.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 6:04 am
Hi Carmen, yeah the article here wasn't really about Viagra vs. contraceptives and which is or isn't covered, but that Pfizer's patent was ruled invalid two years before it expired because a small generic drug company took it to court and won because Pfizer chose to not disclose certain information. The article tells about it in detail.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 7:55 am
My mistake for bringing up that topic Kenneth. As I said, I knew it was off-topic but it still sticks.

"Specifically, Teva said Pfizer did not sufficiently disclose the exact compound that is effective in treating erectile dysfunction, sildenafil, among a list of 260 quintillion chemical compounds named in the patent, according to court document

Read more: http://www.canada.com/Supreme+Court+Canada+finds+Pfizer+Viagra+patent+invalid/7518109/story.html#ixzz2DcvzhR00"

THAT is a major problem. I don't know why they would have done that. Except, again, not knowing Canadian law, sildenafil is a very different formulation is used for heart disease. I suspect that patent ran out long ago.

I have no problem with companies making money. In particular, I have no problem with the profit considering the level of research it takes to get a product to market and the time it takes to go from the patent to the drug approval. Patent life is short because it can take an extra ten years to go through the drug approval process. This does not happen in other industries where the product does not need approval and can be marketed imeediately.

It is true however, that many pharmaceuticals have been playing games with prices and all kinds of things. The oddest thing I heard recently at a biusiness meeting was that all of these companies have been seeking outside advice from consulting firms such as Bain Capital. It is these firms in many cases that have been advising companies to do these things.

And then of course, at least in the US, you have many who go in and out of government service and to the very company that they had been regulating. Technically, this is not allowed and government employees sign saying they won't do this. But they have their ways around it, especially the higher you go.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 8:58 am
Of course every company has to make money, but here is more about that....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-drug-industrys-influence-over-research-grows-so-does-the-potential-for-bias/2012/11/24/bb64d596-1264-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html

Thursday November 29, 2012, 9:09 am
I am agreeing with you Kenneth. I will check out your other article.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 12:32 pm
Thanks

Thursday November 29, 2012, 1:06 pm
Good info Kenneth--people need to wake up and get more involved with what these companies are doing to everyone. Blessings to all.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 5:57 pm
Actually this was a known factor. The American patent is also running out. But this is like others cheap may not be is good.

Thursday November 29, 2012, 6:00 pm
Thanks

Friday November 30, 2012, 1:51 am
Noted thanks

Friday November 30, 2012, 2:51 am
If any of us attempted even half the duplicity and outright illegalities that these corporations play as a matter of course, we would be in prison so long we'd never see the light of day! I so wish that Big Pharma, Monsanto, etc, etc, would get their "just desserts", but I don't see that happening--or that society-at-large would awake to the awareness that these people are not "our friends" and do not have our best interests at heart!
and Nancy M.--while I'm hardly privy to the personal lives of our gray-geezer politicians, I would guess that insurance coverage for Viagra has much to do with the fact that the gray-geezers are "too old to cut the mustard", if you catch my drift. Birth control doesn't impact them personally, so they don't care about it. Just my opinion.

Friday November 30, 2012, 4:50 am
Viagra is very expensive. If there is generic for the same purpose why not use it?
After all, the sun is for everyone and this applies to manufacturers and consumers.
I as a consumer, I am totally against the monopoly, especially when it comes to medicines or food.

Friday November 30, 2012, 6:02 am
Teresa, I agree but wonder how their young mistresses can afford their birth control. I also wonder why Rush would want to see videos of Sarah Fluke having sex if he is "paying" for her birth control but not demand it of those gray-geezers. Well, OK, maybe I do understand the latter.

(and apologies again to ken for being off topic).

Friday November 30, 2012, 6:14 am
Bad girl! Bad, bad, bad girl! lol

Friday November 30, 2012, 6:16 pm
noted

Friday November 30, 2012, 7:06 pm
Interesting comments here. Is is quite incredible that the us govt apparently thinks that propping up droopy penises is more important than controlling the ever-increasing population. Which of course is a joke when you think about it - viagra has added to the population problem, which makes it even more ridiculous that the govt would do this. Oh wait, I forgot, the world is still run by men. The mind boggles...

Saturday December 1, 2012, 6:11 am

Noted

Saturday December 1, 2012, 11:27 pm
If viagra insist on keeping up their prices, then of course alternatives should be allowed.

Sunday December 2, 2012, 6:24 am
Noted.

Sunday December 2, 2012, 3:26 pm
Thank you.

Monday December 3, 2012, 11:36 pm
noted.... whaaaaat?, really, this must be a little bit embarrassing for the gigantic Phizer????