This new drug is called Lyrica. It's from Pfizer, and it was just approved by the FDA to treat an awful, inscrutable condition known as fibromyalgia, an is-it-or-isn't-it illness distinguished by all-over bodily pain the causes of which no one can figure and which few are really sure is even a real disease, per se, given that there's no biological test to diagnose it and no way to accurately validate its existence and given that it has all sorts of seemingly unrelated, scattershot symptoms, like irritable bowel (another suspect ailment) and ringing in the ears and, well, just about everything else.
No matter. After years of doubt as to its effectiveness (and fibromyalgia's existence), Lyrica has been approved, and fibromyalgia has been more or less legitimized. Pfizer stands to make billions, as do the other pharmco titans who are begging the FDA to let them make expensive new drugs to treat this strange condition that no one seems to understand — drugs which may actually exacerbate the condition — but which clearly has enough patients who seem to be suffering from it even though they might very well be suffering from something else entirely.
Ah, the pharmaceutical industry. Tremendous amounts of good, underscored by giant bolts of shameless, exploitive, predatory evil. Isn't it fascinating?
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
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Stumble It!
It's a win-win situation for the government protected drug runners. On the illegal side, drug runners such as the CIA and other big smugglers stand to make billions *only* because certain easy to produce at home drugs are decreed top be illegal which significantly raises the $ value by making it artificially hard and risky to produce and get to market - the enforcement is of course paid for by stolen tax loot. On the legal side, drugs that require expensive and/or difficult manufacturing processes are artificially monopolized, which artificially raises the $ value, through insanely long lasting and unreasonable patent law - enforced through stolen tax loot of course.
What a nice system for the drug runners don't you think? And supposedly we're all in agreement having voted in the same camp of drug running law makers repeatedly for decades.
BTW for the naysayers, almost (if not) all so-called 'illegal' drugs actually do have confirmed and legitimate medical value, such as opiates and THC for pain and nausea relief, and many prescription drugs do have addictive properties and are at least as dangerous to ones health as many of the most dangerous 'illegal' drugs. Some 'legal' drugs appear to have no medical benefit at all, or at best questionable benefit, yet are dangerous to use, and are being 'pushed' on to millions of people, many of whom are children that are unable to make reasoned decisions for themselves.