The companies that make your medicines have criminal records, and the convictions are for lying about the medicines. 2007: Purdue pays $600 million for misleading doctors about OxyContin. It carries on trading. 2009: Eli Lilly pays $1.4 billion for pushing an antipsychotic onto dementia patients. It carries on trading. 2009: Pfizer pays $2.3 billion for promoting a painkiller at doses the regulator had refused. It carries on trading. 2010: AstraZeneca pays $520 million for marketing an antipsychotic to children and the elderly. It carries on trading. 2011: Merck pays $950 million over Vioxx. It carries on trading. 2012: Abbott pays $1.5 billion for selling an epilepsy drug to nursing homes as a way of keeping residents quiet. It carries on trading. 2012: GlaxoSmithKline pays $3 billion, part of it for selling an antidepressant for children on a trial that had failed. It carries on trading. 2013: Johnson & Johnson pays $2.2 billion for pushing an antipsychotic onto children and dementia patients. It carries on trading. Eight companies, more than $12 billion, and not one executive in a cell. The antipsychotic in that last case had taken about ten times the fine in sales. The fine was a line in the accounts, entered in advance. These are the firms that run the trials under your guideline, brief your doctor on the results and print the sheet folded inside the box.The companies that make your medicines have criminal records, and the convictions are for lying about the medicines. 2007: Purdue pays $600 million for misleading doctors about OxyContin. It carries on trading. 2009: Eli Lilly pays $1.4 billion for pushing an antipsychotic onto dementia patients. It carries on trading. 2009: Pfizer pays $2.3 billion for promoting a painkiller at doses the regulator had refused. It carries on trading. 2010: AstraZeneca pays $520 million for marketing an antipsychotic to children and the elderly. It carries on trading. 2011: Merck pays $950 million over Vioxx. It carries on trading. 2012: Abbott pays $1.5 billion for selling an epilepsy drug to nursing homes as a way of keeping residents quiet. It carries on trading. 2012: GlaxoSmithKline pays $3 billion, part of it for selling an antidepressant for children on a trial that had failed. It carries on trading. 2013: Johnson & Johnson pays $2.2 billion for pushing an antipsychotic onto children and dementia patients. It carries on trading. Eight companies, more than $12 billion, and not one executive in a cell. The antipsychotic in that last case had taken about ten times the fine in sales. The fine was a line in the accounts, entered in advance. These are the firms that run the trials under your guideline, brief your doctor on the results and print the sheet folded inside the box. A man with one of those convictions could not get a job behind a pharmacy counter. They stock the pharmacy.
— Sama Hoole (@SamaHoole) October 4, 2026
A man with one of those convictions could not get a job behind a pharmacy counter. They stock the pharmacy.
