NBC Nightly news ran a story this evening about drug companies putting profit over people's health. News to NBC, I guess, but not to me and my family. Here's what I told Brian Williams and Nightly News in a follow-up email comment:
"Thank you for running your story "Capitalizing on drug shortages, companies turn profit" this evening.
My family faced this issue squarely last fall when Spencer, our beloved Springer Spaniel, was diagnosed with GI cancer. The vet said there was a miracle drug that was proven (typically up to 2 yrs remission) and cost-effective, but that it was not available because the drug companies had decided they could not make enough profit on the drug and were selling what little stock they had of it overseas instead. Spencer wound up on a stew of other chemotherapy drugs that were much less effective and very, very expensive.
He got the miracle drug once or twice over the course of his months-long weekly treatments. He responded amazingly when he was dosed with that scarce/effective/cheap drug, but his progress seemed to halt or go backwards when he had to settle for the less-effective/more-costly meds. He never went into remission and passed away after 6 months. Yes, Spence was "just a dog", but he was part of our family and his passing was devastating to us. The drug companies' greed made Spencer's time in chemotherapy miserable and ultimately cost him several months, if not a few years of life, all at great expense to our family.
The same miracle drug is also used for human chemotherapy. The shortage affected people across the country, not just canines.
My wife is a retired pharmacy technician. Over the course of her career she saw the drug companies playing with people's health in order to make fabulous profits for their senior management and CEO's. What they do is disgraceful, immoral and sinful.
I'm about to turn 65 and am anticipating my medical costs going up because the drug companies screwed Medicare by getting Congress to help orchestrate obscene price-fixing for prescription meds under Medicare.
Like our despicable financial institutions, Big Pharma has been playing the rest of us for fools, using Congress as their sock puppets. With the exception of rare moments like your feature on tonight's show, the media has been complicit in its silence and/or non-journalistic stenography.
Big Pharma is part of the 1% that the other 99% of us are complaining about via the Occupy movement (whether directly or in sympathy).
Please consider doing some in-depth probing from the foundation of tonight's story: Why are drug companies allowed to put profit over people's lives? Where does the profit go, i.e. how much do they pay their employees, CEOs and BODs? What kind of perks flow to their top brass? How much do they spend on marketing and lobbying? How much public money has gone into their R&D and their infrastructure? What kind of sweetheart deals do they have with Medicare, VA, DOD, Indian Health Services, colleges, universities, etc. In other words, follow the money and track down the greedy slimeballs behind this problem.
Oh wait, I forgot. NBC is a big multinational corporation. NBC is part of the problem, too. Never mind.
Thank you."
I miss my dog, dammit. And I think the drug companies had a role in shortening his life because they determined they could not make enough money off the chemo drug that actually works. I was ticked off (but not surprised) when the vet told me about the shortage of the miracle drug that wasn't profitable for the drug companies to make in adequate volume...even more so when the vet said people couldn't get the drug either. My heart goes out to anyone and any families who has confronted this problem for their loved ones.
The Nightly News segment is at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...