TEN OF THE FEW: AMERICAN “BIG” PHARMASEUTICAL
(V for Vendetta, Alan Moore, 1982-1989)
(The Gunpowder Plot [November 5, 1605] was a failed assassination attempt against the English few:
that is, against King James I of England and VI of Scotland and the entire Protestant “aristocracy and
nobility.” This attempt was led by the Robert Catesby [1572-1605]. His group of English Catholics
planned “to blow up” the House of Lords [the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom]:
while these English few were in attendance.
The “conspirator” who became most closely associated with the plot [at least, in the public’s
imagination] was Guy Fawkes [1570-1606]. Fawkes had been assigned the task of lighting the fuse to
strategically placed, gunpowder explosives. Their plot failed.
Immediately before his scheduled execution [January 31, 1606], Fawkes jumped from the hanging
scaffold to his death before his sentence of hanged, “drawn and quartered” could be implemented.
Fawkes’ “act of disobedience” greatly disappointed these Protestant, English few: they wanted blood,
but they received “defiance” instead.
Over time, a costume mask of Fawkes’ face has become a symbol of rebellion against the abusive,
“minority rule” of the privileged classes, especially against the European “Royals.”
[The “Lady in White” and Cuban dissident, Laura Pollan, passed away on Friday, 10/14/11. She found
the opposition group, Ladies in White, who pressed for the release of Cuban, political prisoners within
Cuba. Her symbols of opposition, to the repressive, Cuban Government of Fidel “I have lost my way”
Castro, were “dressing in white” and carrying “gladiolas”: her Fawkes’ acts of defiance.
Her husband was part of the “Group of 75” who were imprisoned by the Cuban few because of their
dissident activities: that is, the privileged of the Communist Party of Cuba who wanted to violate the
civil rights of the Cuban many without interference from its citizenry.
Because of her husband’s “conviction” and his imprisonment, this gentle, shy, literature teacher, who
loved cats and who loved plants, started demonstrating with a few other wives of prisoners. In the end,
she and her group won the release of the “Group of 75”: the simple truth is that the few will always,
always be “contained” by the courage of the many.]
Parenthetically and not coincidently, the Occupy Wall Street [OWS] movement of September 17, 2011
has followed the tradition of the wearing of the Guy Fawkes mask as well as the tradition of employing
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s [1869-1948] strategy of mass, nonviolent, civil disobedience. The
movement is in its 33rd day. It is going global. The “Arabian Spring” lengthens for the international few:
this movement has the potential for making the late Laura Pollan proud. And, Alan Moore’s V for
Vendetta [1982-1989] will become its story. And, his comic book character of “V” has become its
“superhero”: See below for the story of “V.”
“The United States is the only advanced country that permits the pharmaceutical industry to charge
exactly what the market will bear” (Marcia Angell of Harvard University) to the point of the disregard for
human life.
The Pharmaceutical lobby (Pl) of American “Big” Pharmaceutical (ABP) has “encouraged” the U. S.
Congress to pass at least 1.6 thousand pieces of ‘favorable’ legislation between 1998 and 2005 at a cost
of 900 million dollars.
Currently, the industry has over 1.3 thousand registered “lobbyists” in Washington, D. C.
The Pl was influential in passing the “Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act
(MPDIMA) of 2003. This measure prevents the government from negotiating drug prices with the
pharmaceutical corporations: thus, 61 percent of Medicare spending (on prescription drugs) is direct
profit. The MPDIMA of the ABP undermines the financial stability of the Medicare program: this reality
is of no concern to it and/or to its U. S. Congress: it does not care if older, American citizens could be
without future, medical care because of its unending greed: the insensitivity of the American few to the
needs of the American many is legendary.
ABP’s “unregulated”, corporate practices are a national disgrace.
ABP justifies its excessive “product pricing” by claiming that its “Research and Development” costs are
“extremely high.” Of course, this “cover story” does not indicate that the cost of “lobbying” and the
cost of “advertising” are included in its claim. Also, despite its “extremely high” costs, it continues to
report equally high, annual net profits.
ABP is a major “sponsor” of clinical, drug research: its researchers and their publications are often
financially controlled (through the “sponsorship”) to the point that they report “favorable outcomes”
regardless of the outcomes of their experimental research.
In addition, ABP encourages the over-prescribing of its drugs (through direct advertising, giving “free”
samples, the awarding of research stipends, etc.) in order to increase its profit margins. Because of its
extreme disregard of the needs of others, ABP will even encourage the over medication of “children and
teenagers” by its willing “familiars.”
The six, largest, pharmaceutical corporations in the United States (by total, annual revenues [USD]: for
2009) are Johnson & Johnson (61.9), Pfizer (50.0), Abbott Laboratories (30.8), Merck & Co. (27.4), Eli Lilly
(21.8), and Bristol-Myers Squibb (18.8). And, the six, largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world
(by total annual revenues [USD]: for 2009) are Johnson & Johnson (61.9), Pfizer (50.0), Roche (47.4),
GlaxoSmithKline (45.8), Novartis, and Sanofi (42.0).
Since Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Pfizer, Inc (PFE) are the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the
United States (ranked one and two respectively) and the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the
world (and also ranked one and two respectively) by annual revenues (2009), they will receive some
attention below.
(It should be noted that by 2010 annual, revenue calculations, PFE is now ranked number one [67.8],
and JNJ is now ranked number two [61.6] in the United States and in the world: thus, PFE will be
described first and JNJ will be delineated second. This change in ranking was due to PFE’s acquisition of
Wyeth Company (formerly one of the companies owned by American Home Products Corporation) on
October 15, 2009. The purchase price was for 68 billion USD.)
PFE is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation which is headquartered in New York, New
York. This publically traded corporation was founded in 1849 by the German-American cousins, Charles
Pfizer (1824-1906) and Charles Erhardt. It was originally named Charles Pfizer And Company.
PFE employees over 110.6 thousand people (2010), and it has a total equity of 88.3 billion USD (2010).
Currently, Ian Reed is its President and its CEO.
Some of PFE’s “key” prescription products are Advil, Celebrex, Lipitor, Preparation H, Robitussin, Viagra,
Xanax, and Zoloft.
PFE is one of the single, largest, lobbying interests in U. S. politics. It opposes any efforts to attach a
prescription drug benefit to Medicare. It opposes generic drugs entering the U. S. market places. It
proposed a ban “on all lawsuits against manufactures of body implant parts” as a part of tort reform
legislation in the U. S. Congress.
PFE lobbied against New Zealand in securing a free trade agreement with the United States because it
objected to New Zealand’s restrictive drug buying rules. Also, it was associated with an attempt to
“unseat” Helen Clark as health minister in New Zealand in 1990.
(Free trade is a system of trade policy which allows “traders to trade” across national boundaries
without interference from respective governments. Under a free trade policy, prices are a reflection of
actual “supply and demand” conditions within the market place. Thus, governments are limited in their
ability “to fix” prices [interventions] with subsidies [or subventions: assistance paid to a business or
economic sector], taxes, tariffs [from the Italian, tariff, meaning “lists of prices, book of rates”], and
quotas.)
Finally, PFE has been party to a number of suits relative to the efficacy and to the dangers of its
pharmaceutical products and its corporate practices (off-label promotional practices, Kelo case, Quigley
Co., etc.).
(In 2009, PFE pleaded guilty to the largest health care fraud in U. S. history. And, it received the largest
criminal “penalty” ever levied for the illegal marketing of four of its drugs. Cited as a “repeat offender”
by the U. S. Department of Justice, this latest, negotiated, “settlement” is the fourth one in the last ten
years for this criminal enterprise. By simply paying these “penalties” to the U. S. Government, PFE’s
corporate, criminal practices become justified: the “penalties” become just a matter of the “cost of
doing business” in obtaining the “competitive edge.”
JNJ is an American multinational pharmaceutical, medical devices, and consumer goods manufacturer
which is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This publically traded corporation was founded
in 1886 by Robert Wood Johnson, James Wood Johnson, and Edward Mead Johnson. The brothers
created “ready-to-use”, surgical, dressing products (supposedly, inspired by the great physician, Joseph
Lister).
(Joseph Lister [1827-1912] was a British surgeon, and he was a pioneer in antiseptic surgery. He was
inspired by the equally great, Louis Pasteur [1822-1895], who advocated the “germ theory” of disease:
that is, microorganisms are the cause of most diseases rather than the diseases being “spontaneously
generated.”
JNJ employees over 114 thousand people (2010), and it has a total equity of 56.6 billion USD (2010).
Currently, William C. Weldon is its Chairperson and its CEO.
Some of JNJ’s important “consumer brands” are Acuvue, Benadryl, Carefree, Efferdent, Johnson’s Baby,
Listerine, Neko, Neosporin, Pepcid, Reach, Risperdal, Rogaine, Rolaids, Sudafed, Tylenol, Visine, and
Zyrtec.
JNJ promotes itself as one of the world’s “most respected” corporations.
In August of 2007, this “most respected” corporation filed a lawsuit against the American Red Cross
(ARC). It demanded that the ARC “halt the use of the red cross symbol on products that it sells to the
public.”
(The Geneva Conventions [They comprise four treaties: 1864, 1906, 1929, and 1949.] established
standards of international law for the humane treatment of victims of war. The singular term, the
Geneva Convention, reflects the agreement of 1949. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 updated
the terms of the first three treaties. It “extensively defined the basic rights of prisoners of war”, both
civilly and militarily, during war conflicts: it established protections for the wounded combatants and
for non-combatants in and around war zones.
The ARC offered significant input into this convention, and it is one of the “operational evaluators” of
the treatment of combatants and non-combatants during war.
The selling of products, under the Red Cross symbol, is one of a number of ways by which it attempts to
fund its life saving activities.
The treaties of the Fourth Geneva Convention were ratified, “in whole or with reservations, by 194
countries. Unfortunately, the treaties were only about people in war: they do not address the conduct
of war among countries.)
In May of 2008, most of the elements of JNJ’s case were dismissed by a court. A month later, the few
remaining elements were settled by the parties involved in the suit.
In 2010, the U. S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) brought suit against JNJ for illegally marketing its drugs
through Omnicare (Omnicare functions chiefly as a provider of drugs, related consulting, and data
management.) who supplies drugs to nursing homes. JNJ’s drug, Risperdal, was at issue:
JNJ’s “kickbacks” were utilized in order to encourage Omnicare to supply a number of nursing homes
with its drug.
Risperidone (sold under the trade name Risperdal and manufactured by Janssen-Craig, a subsidiary of
JNJ) has dangerous side effects: significant weight gain, tardive dyskinesia, reuroleptic malignant
syndrome, and the increase in the probability of death in patients with dementia. Ignoring the issues of
the dangerous side effects of the drug and the marketing of the drug as an antipsychotic which can be
used as a “chemical restraint”, JNJ has attempted, repeatedly, to justify its system of financial rewards
(“rebates” or “kickbacks”) for its drug “pushers.”
In respond to the USDOJ’s suit as well as to the “scrutiny” of the press, JNJ stated that “rebate”
programs are a “standard practice in the health care industry and have been used widely by
governmental and private payers.” Also, it emphasized that its” rebate” programs “have been and
remain lawful and appropriate” if not unethical or worse.
In other words, paying a supplier (e. g. Omnicare) to push its dangerous drug(s) is justified because
everyone else is doing it.
And, of course, who cares if a few people were and will be killed for the sake of corporate profits. After
all, JNJ is one of the “most respected” corporations in the United States if not in the entire world: just
ask the Johnson brothers and/or the families of the people that they have murdered.
Post Script:
V for Vendetta was a “ten-issue comic book” series written by Alan More and illustrated, primarily, by
David Lloyd between 1982 and 1989.
The story was inspired, partly, by the infamous Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (See above.).
The principal character, a mysterious, masked revolutionary, “V”, works to destroy a totalitarian
government (of the 1980’s and the 1990’s) after a nuclear war in a near-future United Kingdom. “V” is
depicted as an “anarchist” dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask. He conducts a brilliantly elaborate and a
brilliantly theatrical campaign to eliminate his former captors, to bring down the “minority rule” of the
government, and to convince the English many (“the people”) to rule themselves.
Thus, the “over throw” or the end of the abusive rule of “Norsefire” is achieved by “V” in his death: the
people bring down the totalitarian government and become their own “V”.
Although Moore’s view of people ruling themselves (without a government) is naïve to unattainable, the
idea of the many ruling the few is not (Democracy and its many variations are examples of such a
political structure as long as the few are actively “contained” by the people’s representatives.).
The OWS movement (and it’s like movements) is the American and the international many protesting
the abuse of the privileged classes is a story which is “as old as the human race” itself. That these
“oligarchs” and their “familiars” keep trying to feed upon the existences of the many is astounding:
especially, since the American and international few will always, always fail to control the many for any
extended period of time.
The OWS movement and its Guy Fawkes’ members are looking for a “V” to teach them that the true
power of a society is in the courage and the caring of its members and in the courage and the caring of
its leadership: together, they need to “protect” and they need to “nourish” the helpless and the
disfranchised from being hanged, “drawn, and quartered” by the American and international few.
To hell with the “oligarchs” (ABP, the English and other European “Royals”, the Wall Street firms, the
Cuban Communist Party, and Moore’s “Norsefire”) and their “familiars” (Ian Reed, William C. Weldon,
extreme English Catholics and extreme English Protestants of the 17th Century, Presidents and CEO’s of
the Wall Street firms, Fidel “I lost my way” Castro, and all those who simply “stand-by” watching as the
helpless and as the disfranchised continue to suffer and continue to die for the selfish and selfdestructive needs of the privileged classes),
Fromoneofthemany