Predator Profile: MERCK & CO

MERCK & CO

For decades Merck had a sterling reputation for integrity and high-quality research in a pharmaceutical industry whose other major players were often regarded in a much less favorable light. Merck also avoided the merger mania that afflicted its rivals. That reputation fell to pieces in the early 2000s amid revelations suggesting that the company had sought to suppress evidence of safety problems with its arthritis medication Vioxx. The company ended up paying billions of dollars to governments and individuals to resolve thousands of lawsuits related to its actions.

“In 2008 Merck spent 93 million to market Gardisil as a vaccine that prevented cervical cancer, a conclusion their clinical trials never reached.”

from: Documentary ‘BOUGHT‘ Exposes Ugly Truth Behind Vaccines

“It has been estimated that the pharmaceutical industry overall spends about twice as much on marketing and promotion as it does on research and development. Regardless of how those two figures compare to each other, the fact that they are in the same ballpark gives one pause, and this is worth mulling over in various contexts. For example, when a drug company refuses to let a developing country have affordable access to a new AIDS drug it’s because – the company says – it needs the money from sales to fund research and development on other new AIDS drugs for the future. If R&D is a fraction of the company’s outgoings, and it spends a similar amount on promotion, then this moral and practical argument doesn’t hold water quite so well.”

Ben Goldacre – author – Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients