New book by research center director shows Big Pharma similar to organized crime

(http://translate.google.com) Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime, a new book written by Peter Gotzsche, the Director of The Nordic Cochrane Centre, exposes the pharmaceutical industries and their charade of fraudulent behavior. In the book, Gotzsche examines the ten largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and finds that their business models meet the same criteria for organized crime. He shows numerous examples of cases, particularly in the United States, where pharmaceutical companies have been convicted of wrongdoing or have reached a settlement of up to several billion dollars. He draws close comparisons between the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries: both industries operate on a business model that knowingly deceives the public and causes harm to consumers for the sake of generating profits.

Gotzsche says that Big Pharma's criminal activity includes deceptive use of public funds, the theft of taxpayers' money, illegal marketing and the bribery of doctors.

The book also criticizes the approval process for new medications. According to Gotzsche, pharmaceutical companies design their tests to get specific results and manipulate data to support their conclusions. If they still don't get the results they want, then they simply refuse to publish the tests.

Gotzsche further claims that the companies he examines often try to hide the lethal "side" effects of their drugs and attempt to have patients use them for treatments they were never approved for.

According to Gotzsche, pharmaceutical medicine is the third leading cause of death in the Western world. He hopes that his book will help effect change and put an end to the ongoing epidemic of crime in the healthcare system.