It looks like Pfizer’s (PFE) anti-smoking drug Chantix makes people kick the habit but at the same time can push them toward suicide or depression. It is a hard decision whether patients want to die slowly or fast.
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices wants the warning labels on the drug to be changed, and, is it any wonder? The organization looks at problems with major drugs. According to The Wall Street Journal, in its most recent study the ISMP “found 988 serious incidents linked to Chantix in the U.S. during last year’s fourth quarter.” Pfizer says that the label on the product already states that the drug may have problems, but they are “infrequent” or “rare.” Tell that to the person who tried to kill himself.
The whole mess points to the catastrophe surrounding the drug industry. Big Pharma needs to get new product to market fast. Many of its most reliable money makers are coming “off patent”, which means that generic manufacturers can pump out cheaper versions of the drugs which were so profitable. The large drug companies are pressured by stockholders to keep up earnings, so they fire their sales staffs and push what popular treatments they still have as hard as possible
.The FDA often claims that it does not have the staff to look at every drug as well as it might. A great deal of the research on drugs is funded by drug companies. That seems like a sensible way to make certain that the concoctions are safe
No true believer in capitalism thinks that the drug companies are unaware of what the unintended consequences of using their products are. They just don’t want to tell anyone else.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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