Pharma Funded "Patient" Groups Keep Drug Prices Astronomical

Rosenberg, Martha
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/pharma-funded-patient-groups-keep-drug-prices-astronomical/
Date Written:  2017-03-06
Publisher:  CounterPunch
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20500

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

While more than 80 percent of patient groups are Pharma funded the New York Times reported this week including the National Hemophilia Foundation, the American Diabetes Association and the National Psoriasis Foundation, mental health front groups which include the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI) and Mental Health America are the most insidious.

Not only do psychiatric drugs represent four digit outlays per month per patient and sometimes much more, patients are kept on them for decades or life -- with few medical attempts to determine if patients still need them or ever needed them. Side effects of the drug cocktails are viewed, thanks to Pharma spin, as confirmation of the "mental illness" not the side effects they almost always are. The use of such drugs in the elderly, despite their links to death in those with dementia, has become epidemic and is an underreported cause of falls.

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