GLAXOSMITHKLINE
GlaxoSmithKline has become the poster child of big pharma payouts. These include a $750 million payment relating to the sale of adulterated products from a facility in Puerto Rico and a record $3 billion in connection with charges relating to illegal marketing, suppression of adverse safety research results and overcharging government customers. The company set a record for the largest tax avoidance settlement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
“The combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion) [in 2002]… Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself. (Most of its marketing efforts are focused on influencing doctors, since they must write the prescriptions.)
If prescription drugs were like ordinary consumer goods, all this might not matter very much. But drugs are different. People depend on them for their health and even their lives. In the words of Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), “It’s not like buying a car or tennis shoes or peanut butter.” People need to know that there are some checks and balances on this industry, so that its quest for profits doesn’t push every other consideration aside. But there aren’t such checks and balances.”
Marcia Angell, author of “The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It”
GLAXOSMITHKLINE – RAP SHEET
Corp-Research.org – Predatory behavior and violations. A complete inventory.
General Profile Data on GLAXOSMITHKLINE
GSK Website
GSK Board of Directors
GSK Company Profile
GSK Finance Chart
Sources of Interest
HealthRanger – Exclusive interview with former GlaxoSmithKline employee and whistleblower Blair Hamrick
Bad Medicine: The Glaxo Case
GlaxoSmithKline Corporate Criminal?
Corporate Research : GLAXO
Study: Vaccinated Children Have 2 to 5 Times More Diseases and Disorders Than Unvaccinated Children
Reading
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients
The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It
Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine
More Pharma Profiles
PROFILE PAGE – MERCK
PROFILE PAGE – GLAXO SMITH KLINE
PROFILE PAGE – ELI LILLY
PROFILE PAGE – NOVARTIS
PROFILE PAGE – PFIZER
PROFILE PAGE – ASTRAZENECA
PROFILE PAGE – ABBOTT RESEARCH
PROFILE PAGE – JOHNSON JOHNSON
PROFILE PAGE – GSK – CHAIR