TV Alert: 60 Minutes to talk about importing drugs from Canada

[Renew Deal]

[whistle]

1. Geeze.....

...don't people realize that we are also fighting a drug war in this country? Importing drugs according to the neo-con/corporate/industrial complex is just bad for the country. Cheap drugs, whether legal or illegal, means less profits! :headbang: :headbang::headbang::headbang:

[Wonk]

18. mp3 & vp3 here

3 M mp3

40 M vp3

[Toby109]

2. What's up with Dan Burton?

Speaking out against the Bush Admin on Medicare? Somethin' ain't right.

[aquart]

3. They did a GOOD job with it.

Made the FDA jerk look like a jerk.

[TruthIsAll]

4. Another nail in Bushco's coffin...

FDA is corrupted. McClellan is a lying SOB, doing the bidding of U.S. Drug companies. He's perfect for Bush. Isn't McClellan the brother of that miscreant Bush press secretary?

Liars. Liars. It's all in the family. A BushCo Medicare scam.

This will bring Bush approval down another 2%.

Get the drugs from Canada. It's safe. BushCo and his FDA bootlickers want to scare the bejeesus out of you by saying it isn't.

[Cleita]

11. TIA, this is really awful for Medicare and Medicaid.

We cannot afford to let old and sick people be treated like this.

[Joanne98]

5. Big Pharma threating to cut Canada off

Too bad the trade agreements say they can violate their patents if they do. France has already said it will do just that. If Canada punks out we can ask the French for help instead.

[Cleita]

6. Senior citizens and Medicaid patients are screwed.

Mark McClellan is leaving the FDA to become Bush's new head of the Medicare and Medicaid program. What happened to Burton? Did he grow a conscience?

[PA Democrat]

13. I think Congressman Burton has an ongoing feud with drug companies

because he feels there is a link between autism and vaccines. Burton has a grandson with autism. He's held a number of hearings on the topic of autism and vaccines and in the process he has not endeared himself to the pharmaceutical industry.

[PA Democrat]

7. Here's a link to the transcript of the show

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/12/60minutes/main605700.shtml

And an excerpt:


60 Minutes contacted Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Merck, Wyeth, Glaxo SmithKline, and Eli Lilly. None of them would agree to be interviewed. Safer asked Dr. Angell about the case the industry invariably makes to justify drug prices.

“This is a kind of blackmail. What they're saying is, ‘Don't mess with us. Let us charge whatever we want for our drugs. Otherwise, you won't get the miracles,’” says Angell. “And the truth is that they spend less in R&D then they make in profits. And far less then they spend on marketing. And they don't make that many miracles in the first place … The problem is, is that we're no longer getting our money's worth.”

Adds Albano: “The pharmaceutical industry is gouging the American consumer. There's no other conclusion one can draw. And why should we, in this country, have to pay the highest prices in the world? Why isn't the president doing something? Why isn't Congress doing something? Someone has to wage this battle. So we're prepared to do it here.”

Political pressure is building. Congress now plans to reconsider legislation that would legalize Canadian drugs. As for Dr. Mark McClellan, he is leaving the FDA and becoming President Bush's new head of Medicare and Medicaid.

[Cleita]

9. Thanks, this is definitely going on my hard disk for future reference.

Good show. I didn't get the name of the doctor who wrote a book about this, but when I get it off of the transcript, I am certainly going to buy it. How about all the money Bush got from the Pharma industry, disgusting, isn't it?

[PA Democrat]

12. Dr. Marcia Angell is the doctor's name

"That's a lot of hooey. There is no reason that buying drugs in Canada is any less safe than buying them in the United States," says Dr. Marcia Angell, who was executive editor of The New England Journal of Medicine for 11 years. She’s currently writing a book on the secrets of the drug industry.

I also loved her comment that forcing the drug companies to lower their prices would NOT affect the development of new drugs. Hmmm.... I'm thinking of someone we both know who would still argue otherwise. :eyes:

[xultar]

8. Well if they can export our jobs why can't we import drugs? Aren't some

drug companies making our drugs outside of the US anywaze?

[Cleita]

10. Yes, according to this report these American drug companies

have manufacturing sources all over the world.

[patricia92243]

14. ordering my meds from India - helf the price of Canada or Mexico

[PaDUer]

15. do you have

a prescription plan? If so, how does it work? What's the name of the place you order from? Do they send 3 months at a time or how does this work? Another question, are the meds name brand or generic?--I have some adverse reactions to some generic meds..

[Cleita]

16. This is not to be missed.

:kick:

[maggrwaggr]

17. just watched it. Very damning.

Unfortunately they only mentioned that the FDA is a part of the executive Branch, didn't mention Shrub by name.

Still, very damning. Good stuff.

Enough of this goddamn corporate welfare in this country. It's just obscene.

[radfringe]

19. if imported drugs are unsafe......

mmmm... the spin is that drugs being imported are unsafe, the message is that US-made drugs are the only safe ones

these drugs are made by the same companies, and many companies outsource jobs/production to other countries

- how do we know that the drugs we buy in US pharmacies were actually made in the US?

- why would a company make "safe" drugs just for the US and unsafe drugs for the rest of the world? Doesn't this also imply that drugs made outside of the US by these same companies are unsafe and therefore people in other countries are taking unsafe drugs and are in serious danger?