Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bloodsuckers Vs. Lifesavers
IBD ^ | February 26, 2008

Posted on 02/26/2008 8:55:02 PM PST by Kaslin

Enterprise: When a great American company offers a medicine that lengthens the lives of hundreds of millions of people, you might think politicians would say thank you. Instead they say: How dare you advertise it.


Pfizer has just been pressured by Congress into dropping its main ad campaign for the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, arguably the most popular medicine in the world and with very good reason.

Lipitor can lower the deadly artery-clogging substance by as much as 60% and, when combined with regular exercise and a low-fat diet, prevents heart attacks and sudden deaths.

Companies who do so much for so many deserve plaudits. But liberal politicians never rest in their search for corporate villains, and so they have demonized the pharmaceutical industry, just as they have an oil and gas industry that spends billions developing new technologies to reach crude and natural gas deposits that were inaccessible only a few years ago.

Just as Congress' big shots have no appreciation for how "Big Oil" can cut our dependence on oil-rich enemy countries, they're equally ungrateful for how "Big Pharma" cures and manages disease.

In his research on productivity and health care for the National Bureau of Economic Research, Columbia business professor Frank R. Lichtenberg found a direct connection between new drug approvals and rapidly increased longevity.

(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: health; jarvik; medicine; statins

1 posted on 02/26/2008 8:55:03 PM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: neverdem

ping


2 posted on 02/26/2008 8:58:11 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Those two Demorats can tell multinational corporations what to do but can’t control their own lives .... what a lot of **


3 posted on 02/26/2008 8:59:31 PM PST by SkyDancer ("There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress - Mark Twain")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin; neverdem

Isn’t this the statin that we discussed on another thread that had such bad side effects?


4 posted on 02/26/2008 9:01:26 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

bump


5 posted on 02/26/2008 9:01:55 PM PST by lowbridge ("I can't wait to see what he stands for." - Susan Sarandon on her support of Barack Obama)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: metmom

thanks, bfl


6 posted on 02/26/2008 9:03:09 PM PST by neverdem (I have to hope for a brokered GOP Convention. It can't get any worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I’m betting that Pfizer either (a) didn’t donate to Dingell or (b) didn’t donate enough in Dingell’s opinion.

Hence the punishment.


7 posted on 02/26/2008 9:08:25 PM PST by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Lipitor is #1 cholestral drug but is a statin...not for long term use if possible, but rather a few years and then get off it ....IMHO


8 posted on 02/26/2008 9:09:05 PM PST by CIDKauf (No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“Lipitor can lower the deadly artery-clogging substance by as much as 60% and, when combined with regular exercise and a low-fat diet, prevents heart attacks and sudden deaths.”

I’m sure Pfizer had nothing to do with writing this article; no, nothing at all.


9 posted on 02/26/2008 9:10:14 PM PST by eclecticEel (oh well, Hunter 2012 anyone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: metmom

Long term use of statin drugs can/will deteriorate muscles, much like Atkins diet if you have lost all of the fat and there is nothing but muscles left in the body to burn without intake of carbos or fat. My uncle Jim has been on Lipitor for 15 years or more and has had a noticable loss of strength, enough that my Mom and her 2 sisters, all nurses, will not take it any statin drug at all (70 to 80 yr old).


10 posted on 02/26/2008 9:24:55 PM PST by CIDKauf (No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Companies who do so much for so many deserve plaudits. But liberal politicians never rest in their search for corporate villains, and so they have demonized the pharmaceutical industry...

You mean politicians like oh, say...John McCain?

McCain to Pharmaceutical Innovators: Drop Dead

11 posted on 02/26/2008 9:31:51 PM PST by GATOR NAVY (Your parents will all receive phone calls instructing them to love you less now.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

You just gotta weigh the benefits vs. the risks, and remember that no one cares as much about you as you do. When the day comes that a doctor tells me I have high cholesterol, I will do whatever I have to via diet and exercise to fix it. If someone has done everything right and their numbers are still bad, then it may make sense to take a low dose and see if it helps, although who knows anymore, since now it is being said that cholesterol might not have anything to do with it. I hand out Lipitor all day long to people who obviously don’t want to take personal responsibility for their own health. The drug company developed a drug that demonstrates a specific, measurable effect, so good for them if they make money.


12 posted on 02/26/2008 9:40:08 PM PST by ToastedHead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The democrats and their trial lawyer vermin have destroyed the US pharmaceutical industry, once the world leader, by far. New medications have disappeared from the development pipeline.


13 posted on 02/26/2008 10:46:06 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The time is coming.


14 posted on 02/26/2008 10:47:27 PM PST by wastedyears (This is my BOOMSTICK)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

People are helped by their product, eh? And they’re making a profit, huh? Shut them down, I say!


15 posted on 02/27/2008 3:14:11 AM PST by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: metmom; Kaslin; El Gato; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; ...
Isn’t this the statin that we discussed on another thread that had such bad side effects?

I don't recall. The devil is in the details. Most marketing is just hype, but the left thinks that it is their duty to protect us from ourselves or the drug companies.

The drug companies didn't help the situation when they analyzed the results of tests that they submitted to the FDA in the most favorable light, and hid the results that showed no benefit or worse.

They pushed the cholesterol hypothesis up the wazoo for everybody, stumbled across their anti-inflammatory effects and downplayed their side effects. Now as they go off patent, they want to make them over the counter drugs as well as combine them with a second drug to lower total cholesterol or raise HDL cholesterol, IIRC.

Great Drug, but Does It Prolong Life?

16 posted on 02/27/2008 9:42:18 AM PST by neverdem (I have to hope for a brokered GOP Convention. It can't get any worse.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Maybe Amgen has something coming out? :’)


17 posted on 02/27/2008 10:29:38 AM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/___________________Profile updated Tuesday, February 19, 2008)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: ToastedHead

Well said! Both my hubby and I lowered our cholesterol and blood pressure through exercise and diet, and will be even more vigilant if more drastic cuts are needed (unnecessary at this time).

It’s a matter of taking charge of YOUR own health.


18 posted on 02/27/2008 10:36:00 AM PST by alwaysconservative (Remember, for the Dems, "diversity" is about victim status rather than ideas. . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CIDKauf

You’re going to lose muscle, pretty much no matter what, over a period of 15 years, and especially from 70 to 80 years old. I believe even Jack LaLane is a smaller man that he was 15 years ago.


19 posted on 02/27/2008 1:07:56 PM PST by hocndoc (http://www.LifeEthics.org)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: alwaysconservative

You’re doing your liver a huge favor going at it the hard way. Good for you! And you are also making your heart stronger and better able to keep pumping hard for longer. I hope I never see you in my pharmacy!


20 posted on 02/27/2008 6:49:21 PM PST by ToastedHead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson