FDA now belongs to Big Pharma?

Here’s some scary news from last week: The newly confirmed head of the US Food and Drug Administration, Robert Califf, has taken money from no fewer than 23 different drug companies. He’s also said some very friendly things about Big Pharma.

This has not only scared natural news websites but also caused democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to try to block Califf, saying that…

Dr. Califf’s extensive ties to the pharmaceutical industry give me no reason to believe that he would make the FDA work for ordinary Americans, rather than just the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies…

Sanders may be a bit too socialistic for many people, but sometimes that is a good thing. Someone needs to be able to stand up to the drug companies and represent the people at the FDA. Who will do that now?

We would never accept a judge that had been taking money from the defendants. In what way is this different?

This seems like a major win for Big Pharma. Expect them to make even more billions on lethal drugs like Vioxx in the future. And expect Americans to pay even more for new drugs of doubtful benefit and carefully hidden harms.

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If you want to read something really scary I recommend these fantastic books from Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche, one of the co-founders of the Cochrane Collaboration: