Critics Of ‘Big Pharma’ Aren’t Denying Miracle Of Modern Medicine

Blogger and radio host Erick Erickson penned a long, emotional column in The Free Press on Thursday complaining that critics of the modern medical establishment built on sick care have “scapegoated” the pharmaceutical industry.

“Big Pharma Saved My Life,” he titled the essay, with a story of how pharmaceutical interventions have saved both Erickson and his wife after they suffered life-threatening episodes. “We are still both here, thanks to God and the much-maligned ‘Big Pharma.’”

“That disparaging label got a workout from both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Senate interrogators during confirmation hearings this week,” Erickson said. “But let me tell you about the other side of this now-hackneyed phrase. Without innovative drugs developed with great scientific skill at tremendous cost by the pharmaceutical industry, my family and I would not be here today. There are countless other people who can say the same.”

His argument, however, is bad faith and ridiculous. Criticism of “Big Pharma” isn’t a denial of the miracles of modern medicine that help keep us alive longer and, in some ways, healthier than ever before. Rather it is an indictment of the industry’s exercising corrupt influence over politicians while operating with insidious incentives to engineer a model of sick care instead of genuine health care.

The American lifespan might be extending beyond that of previous generations, but health span is certainly not, despite the innovations in medicine to increase both. Dartmouth College Professor Susan Roberts told CNBC last fall Americans can now expect to spend roughly 10 years coping with myriad chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and dementia — a period that is twice as long as the duration expected in the 1960s. Roberts blamed the “widening gap” between life and health span on the medical industry’s success in “keeping sick people alive” without solving their underlying problems. In other words, Americans are suffering an unprecedented epidemic of chronic illness as conditions managed by a pill for every ill continue to pile up.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 90 percent of all health care spending in the United States goes toward dealing with chronic disease and mental health issues. Six in 10 Americans suffer from at least one chronic illness, while 4 in 10 suffer two or more. More than 40 percent of adults 20 and older, meanwhile, are clinically obese, which amplifies the risk of nearly every chronic illness and at least 13 different cancers.

Naturally, pharmaceutical giants have been eager to capitalize on obesity with a new generation of weight-loss drugs sold as medicinal elixirs for Americans’ runaway weight problem, even as the synthetic injections are just another permanent treatment for a preventable problem that already has a cure. Novo Nordisk, the Danish manufacturer of name-brand GLP-1 agonists Wegovy and Ozempic (the latter of which is sold to a parody tune of the Pilot’s 1975 hit, “Magic“) made so much money from its supposed wonder drugs that the company is “Reshaping Denmark’s Economy,” according to the New York Times in 2023.

But is Novo Nordisk really interested in solving obesity as an underlying issue? Hardly. As outlined in my new book, Fat and Unhappy, the Danish company is a lead sponsor of a group determined to “break the stigma of obesity.”

The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) was launched in 2005 “with the goal that this organization could create needed change for those who are living with and/or are affected by the disease of obesity.” Today, the group operates with 85,000 members, some of whom pay small dues, in addition to receiving funding from a cadre of pharmaceutical giants including Novo Nordisk, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Eli Lilly. The “action” demanded by the OAC includes the “elimination of weight bias in our society and laws” based on the “belief” that obesity is a matter of “disease” out of individuals’ control rather than one of personal responsibility.

The group’s “Stop Weight Bias Campaign” has its own website and also happens to be sponsored by WW, formerly known as WeightWatchers, which is now operating as a pharmaceutical company selling GLP-1 drugs. WW entered the market after decades of selling the debunked low-fat, calories in/calories out model for weight loss promoted by the food industry.

Is it scapegoating to suggest the pharmaceutical industry is not operating in consumers’ best interests? There’s far more money to be made in chasing a treatment over a cure, and bureaucrats love to make it after years on top of the nation’s most powerful regulatory agencies. One medication often leads to another medication, which then leads to another and another and another and so on.

But we need not worry, said the drug industry 20 years ago, the opioids prescribed to cope with the aftermath of all our surgeries were not very addictive. And Americans struggling with a spiritual pain can just take antidepressants to drug their way out — never mind the risks that could make us even more insane than we were before. Let’s examine the possible side effects disclosed by the manufacturer of the antidepressant Abilify (emphasis added):

• Stroke in elderly people … that can lead to death
• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome. …
• Uncontrolled body movements. …
• Problems with your metabolism such as: High blood sugar … and diabetes. … Increased fat levels … in your blood. … Weight gain. …
• Unusual urges. …
• Orthostatic hypotension. …
• Falls. …
• Low white blood cell count
• Seizures (convulsions)
• Problems with control of your body temperature especially when you exercise. …
• Difficulty swallowing

What are those urges? The company website lists “gambling, binge eating or eating that you cannot control (compulsive), compulsive shopping and sexual urges.”

“If you or your family members notice that you are having unusual urges or behaviors, talk to your healthcare provider,” the website reads. At least the dystopian cartoon lady in the company’s commercial was reassuring. Before anyone says “follow the science” with another random pill from whatever pharma has come up with as the answer to all our problems, maybe Americans ought to try putting their phones down and going for a walk after a meal of real food from the local butcher. There is plenty of science to suggest the “chemical imbalance” theory of mental illness is just a massive scam.

The obvious conflict in Big Pharma’s incentives was painfully highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic. Americans were forced into lockdowns by politicians who coerced the public into taking government-funded “vaccines” that sent nearly $100 billion in taxpayer-funded profits to Big Pharma’s coffers. The snack industry meanwhile saw junk food sales jump $10 billion over two years as the pharmaceutical industry promoted prescriptions to enable the lifestyles behind the very conditions that left people vulnerable to severe sickness in the first place.

Kennedy railing against “Big Pharma” in this week’s Senate hearings as the face of a new movement to make America healthy again wasn’t as much an effort to “scapegoat” the industry as it was a rallying cry to spur the health care system to offer true “health care.”

Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of “Fat and Unhappy: How ‘Body Positivity’ Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).” He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here. Buy “Fat and Unhappy” here.