The fda scam

[Stetto, man...]

It is a profound clarity that one sometimes experiences under the influence of insomnia (I average 4-5 hrs of sleep per night), and this weekend I had one of those moments...

I was up having my first cup of coffee at 3:0-something Saturday morning, watching some "nature" show where this fruitcake is telling a roomful of kids how absolutely wonderful it is that our Imperial Blessed Leader is giving a pass to those committed to generating between 1 and 4 % of the power promised by industry, government and environmental propaganda outfits via wind turbine technology on the wholesale slaughter of endangered birds--No really, it's a good thing for them to do so, and often, although the rest of us will spend a year in stir and pay a fine of $100,000 for killing just one (they do not stipulate whether that killing might be accidental or not).

Then a commercial comes on, for some geriatric miracle drug or another, something that makes your dink soft and your stool hard or maybe the other way around, and 45 seconds of this one minute ad was spent on side effects, "SOME LETHAL"...And I'm thinking to myself in my insomnia-sopped blither, "How the hell does a poison get approved for mass consumption?" The very next commercial explained it perfectly.

"Did you take the FDA APPROVED medicine Vinylmax and suffer heart failure, brain seizure, paralysis, colon polyps or death? Call the law offices of Lowlife, Scuzzball & Johnson for YOUR cut of the government/pharmaceutical/legal industry circle-jerk and money laundering program NOW! Even if you took this "medicine" and have died, you may be entitled to a large cash award!"

I forget which regime gave the fda speed-approval powers, it was long before Galvin's Messiah, and yeah, I've noticed the scam long before now, but yet I wonder: Where are the pitchfork and plowhandle gangs demanding prosecution? The pattern is so obvious, pharma wants to make a bulk of dough on a dangerous chemical that decades of research has proven sketchy medical benefit at best, the fda slams it through after what I'm sure is a very lucrative number of private meetings between pharma lobbyists and unaccountable bureaucrats, the ad campaign turns this sh!t into a wonder drug, pharma makes gazillions, the side-effect disclaimers help to prolong the drug's life on the market, finally enough people are maimed or killed and the recall goes in...Followed by you-know-who...What a clever, devious program...It seems that everybody benefits, doesn't it...

And now I hear that you may be entitled to a large cash award if you used Just For Men hair colorant. I think I found the main reason that tort reform will NEVER be a campaign issue by ANYONE...

[HiTemp]

About two or three times a year I get these things in the mail, notifications that I can become part of "a class" in some action by doing nothing. It's because of some product I purchased or something, and I guess the company has a record of my ownership from the warranty registration. Piles of legal gibberish followed many months later by a check for $4.31 or another I remember was a large one, a whole thirteen bucks and change. I was once tempted to respond just for the hell of it to opt out of the class action and when I did it invited another stream of registered mail from the court with documents for me to fill out. I also got a number of calls on my cell phone from people fishing for information, apparently to see exactly what kind of case I may have had. I didn't have one, my products tend to work pretty good because I usually try and research before I buy, but I didn't tell any of them that. I'd tell them my case should be worth on the order of mid-seven figures and I wasn't about to settle for ten bucks via a class action. They all wanted to know the extend of damages or injury that might merit that kind of money, but I didn't know if I was talking to a person in a law office representing the company or an office trying to get in on the class action, so I asked them to contact me by letter if they wanted to know the details.

Next thing you know I get about a dozen letters from law firms basically telling me how they specialize in this sort of thing, how they have an excellent record of results, with an offer to contact them if I thought I had been wronged by some product or other.

I guess this is a game, Stetto. You can't market anything that makes a medical claim (claiming some medicinal benefit) without the FDA approving it. Obviously, the meds aren't going to work for everyone and likely will damage some people because their system may be different, they may be on some other medication that wasn't tested, etc. I've been on meds before that, when you open the box, there is a set of "instructions" and disclaimers that's about the size of "Shotgun News" edition. Don't take this if you.... Side effects include:..... Stop using if you experience.... etc. Dang, they never made sniffing plastic model glue out to be this dangerous!

Someone has to experience bad effects, and I guess if enough of them surface some lawyers can put the claims together into a class action and it generates more money for them in far less time with less effort than processing dozens of cases separately.

Maybe reducing the maximum percentage allowable for fees in class actions might thwart the rush to achieve class status, but I don't know that would be a good solution. I'd have to think that one through some more.

What about all these "Talk to your doctor about (some drug)" ads? They run through quite a gauntlet of bad effects in those ads, and I've often wondered why would I talk to a doctor about some drug that could cause organ failure or death?

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

It is a scam. Since they stopped animal testing I suppose they beta test on people. I take or put on as little drugs as possible. I don't care if my hair falls out or turns grey etc, the better life through chemistry is over rated.

[zrct02]

HiTemp,you may have gotten $4.31 but did you notice how much the lawyers made. It's usually in the millions.
Stetto, have you noticed the ads for Humira (sp)? It cures RA, Chrones, and psoriasis. It might give you cancer, heart disease (fatal), or a plethora of other side effects. Yea, the risks are well worth getting rid of itchy skin, don't you think?

[HiTemp]

Oh yeah, I remember one of them was from a class action against Sprint or might have been T-Mobile, both of whom I had service with at one time many years ago. Seems they overcharged for some service plan or something, and I got the notification and sent in the little card. About a year or so later I got a check for just shy of $8. I read the financial notice that came with the letter and it said the law firms handling the action got about $43 million, and it was a settlement. The primary litigants in the action made a few thousand, everyone else split what was left after legal fees and expenses, my share was about eight bucks. Yet my "share" of the legal fees amounted to something on the order of thousands. Little wonder why lawyers want these cases consolidated into class actions, or as I call them, "cash actions."

I see these ads for ED all the time, like Viagra and such, always with the warning about an erection lasting more than four hours necessitating a call to the doctor. Why? I'm thinking a four-hour woody would be far from a medical problem, and might land one a job in the film industry.

[zrct02]

The problem with long lasting woodies is that the blood can begin to coagulate. That is a big time problem.

[Stetto, man...]

Sept 2, 2014 10:42:32 GMT -7 zrct02 said:

The problem with long lasting woodies is that the blood can begin to coagulate. That is a big time problem.

Let's imagine the class-action possibilities...Everyone got their cartoon bubbles warmed up?

One of my favorites is the so-called mesothelioma settlement. So a multibillion dollar fund is set up for victims, but the ads at least give the impression that one HAS to hire an attorney to collect from it. If that is true I'm going to double down on the olde Shakespeare adage that I already apply to the lawyers in public orifice.

[HiTemp]

There are actually several different funds or trusts dealing with Mesothelioma. Some are bankruptcy trusts, some are other trust funds with money set aside by manufacturers of asbestos. You don't HAVE to hire an attorney just as with any lawsuit, but you'd be crazy not to because you'll be going up against lawyers working for the trusts themselves and that's pretty much all they do is defend and delay those cases. Just as in any personal injury case, they are going to go through the whole process so they can see all your medical documentation and get an idea what that kind of case is worth. They will continue the typical pattern of insurance company lawyers, low-balling offers until the case gets to depositions. At that point, the cost is going to go up dramatically and they risk pissing off the litigant who might just say if they put me through a deposition I won't settle, it's going to trial win or lose. Now they are committed to the expense of trial and if the person appears very sincere and doesn't come across as the type to run around suing at the drop of a hat, it can cost them a LOT. So most of the cases end up with a settlement, as do most others, and it's usually around the time they have to make a serious assessment of what it will cost if they lose. Remember, if they lose, they pay their trial costs which are more than just the lawyer's fees. They'll have to pay their own experts, doctors, etc. on top of paying whatever the jury awards.

I've been exposed to asbestos in the military so any claim I had would have to be to the VA. Who knows how backlogged they are on those. Might see a settlement by 2217.

[HiTemp]

Sept 2, 2014 11:38:45 GMT -7 Stetto, man... said:

Sept 2, 2014 10:42:32 GMT -7 zrct02 said:

The problem with long lasting woodies is that the blood can begin to coagulate. That is a big time problem.

Let's imagine the class-action possibilities...Everyone got their cartoon bubbles warmed up?

A class-action woody lawsuit? All I can say is it would be a hard case.

[Grug - American Neanderthal]

I don't know if some people would have standing anyway even with taking cialis .