Oh Pfizer

I've spoke of the truth spectrum. On one end you can miss the truth by making an honest mistake. On the other end you have committed a fraud that you hope to benefit from. In between you can be in a place where you don't care what the truth is as long as it supports your story. That is called BS. Many professional scientists have been exposed as BS artists and gone on to have successful careers. It takes a corporation to be able to get caught at the far end of the spectrum and still survive. It takes money and power to get past violating federal racketeering laws.

Pfizer was ordered to pay $142.1 million to Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals for illegally promoting Neurontin for unapproved uses.

Before I go on I must comment on Kaisers responsibility when handing out drugs. Corporate for profit medicine is not a bunch of doctors who get together to discuss what works and what doesn't. They seem to assess symptoms, google them in their brain or some big pharma database and prescribe the magic pill. Problem solved. It reminds one of a scene from Anchorman with Will Ferrell. The main character, Ron Burgandy would read whatever was on the teleprompter. He did not think before he spoke. As a joke someone wrote something for him to say at the end of a broadcast. "I'm Ron Burgandy, that's the news, go fuck yourself San Diego". And that is how the broadcast ended. It wasn't Rons fault. Right?

Kaiser officials alleged they were duped into believing that migraines and bipolar disorder could be treated effectively with Neurontin, approved in 1993 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for epilepsy.

They were duped. There is a lot of duping in Cargo Cults. They don't think before they prescribe. It's not their fault.

There are over 300 lawsuits over off label prescribing of Neurontin. It is a dangerous thing according to the lawyers. The scientists and marketing department at Pfizer allegedly knew Neurontin was dangerous also. Where on the truth spectrum does this case really fall. How dangerous is this little pill and what group of people are most vulnerable? Did the scientists, clinical trials professionals, or doctors know that the marketing department was trying to sell the drug to the vulnerable people just for a profit? Did the marketing department really not care about the people they were hurting?