Pharmaceutical Companies War On Vitamins:

Marcia Angell, a faculty member of the Harvard Medical
School and a former editor of the New England Journal of
Medicine, in her book, "The Truth About the Drug Companies,"
discusses the following ways drug companies deceive Americans:



It plies attending physicians with expense-paid junkets
to St. Croix and Key West, Fla., where they are given
honoraria and consulting fees to listen to promotional
presentations.


It promotes new or little-known diseases such
as "social anxiety disorder" and "premenstrual dysphoric
disorder" as a way of selling the drugs that treat them.


It sets up phony front groups disguised as "patient
advocacy organizations."


It hires ghostwriters to produce misleading scientific
articles and then pays academic physicians to sign on as
authors.


It sends paid lackeys and shills out onto the academic
lecture circuit to ''educate" doctors about a drug's
unapproved uses.


It hires multinational PR firms to trumpet dubious
studies as scientific breakthroughs while burying the
studies that are likely to harm sales.


It buys up the results of publicly funded research.


It maintains a political chokehold on the American
public by donating more money to political campaigns than
any other industry in the country.