The Thin Pill: How Big Pharma Turned Obesity into a Disease

[PopHistorian]

How Big Pharma turned obesity into a disease - then invented the drugs to cure it.

(http:/)/www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/thin.html

<< The breakthrough came last December when her new endocrinologist diagnosed her with something called metabolic syndrome. She'd never heard of it...

Cunningham is among the first wave of Americans to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, a condition that, though only concretely defined five years ago, is now said to afflict as many as 75 million Americans - whether they know it or not. We sit, indeed, amid an epidemic of metabolic syndrome, a fact all the more remarkable because so few people are familiar with it... Metabolic syndrome is characterized by five risk factors: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides (fatty acids in the bloodstream), low HDL ("good") cholesterol, and obesity. Of the five, obesity - which is itself often referred to as an epidemic - is the most important, because the rise of the morbidly overweight is directly driving the rise in the syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is, in fact, almost indistinguishable from obesity - at least 85 percent of those who have the syndrome are obese or overweight.

The tidiness of that correlation makes it tempting to view metabolic syndrome not as an emerging fact of medicine, but as a fiction, wholly devised and disseminated by the pharmaceutical industry. After all, drug companies have long eyed obesity as the ultimate growth market - and they just happen to have an arsenal of pills poised to target it. Such cynicism isn't misplaced...

[More] >>

 

[paulnotbilly]

Not a case of od on mono-sodium glutamate then diet on aspartme/acesulfame k etc then.

 

[brainwave]

The FDA approved a new use for a well known anti-psychotic drug. I know this is no cure and it has side effecs but I am slightly slower to throw out the baby with the bathwater regarding some of this stuff than I used to be.
I am usually of the opinion that no psych meds is best but learned first hand the necessisity for being open. After nothing else worked for a family member suffering from a psychiatric disorder, we reluctantly agreed that she needed meds. She started using this particular drug and it has made a huge difference. She can focus enough to function somewhat.

To me this is an example why looking at things in a black and white manner isn't always best. The devil is in the details as Ark likes to say. Big pharma like the rest of our world is made up of psychopaths and normal people. While the industry as a whole is out to make a profit and may even make up diseases to do so, there are also basic scientists in their research divisions who really want to help cure diseases but do not have the benefit of knowing about ponerology. Sometimes big pharma product can be useful even if it does come down to money. or so I think.

http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20061008/schizophrenia_drug_given_a_nod_for_the_cure_of_autism-id-101814.html

Schizophrenia drug given a nod for the cure of Autism
by Gunika Khurana - October 8, 2006 - 0 comments
Schizophrenia drug given a nod for the cure of Autism

The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that a schizophrenia drug has been okayed by U.S. as the first drug to treat the symptoms of autism in children and adolescents.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior.

Johnson & Johnson's Risperdal can be used to treat the behavioral disorders in Autism which includes irritability, aggression, deliberate self-injury and temper tantrums.

Other behavioral abnormalities that may be present are- staring at hands or flapping arms and hands, walking on tiptoe, strange postures, unpredictable behavior and hyperactivity.

"This approval should benefit many autistic children as well as their parents and other care givers," said Dr. Steven Galson, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

"Our agency strongly encourages the development of appropriate pediatric labeling for adult drugs, and Risperdal is a welcome addition to the growing number of such products that have been shown to have an appropriate risk-benefit profile when tested in children." said Galson.

Approved in 1993, Risperdal is an atypical antipsychotic medication and is most often used to treat delusional psychosis (including schizophrenia), but like other atypical antipsychotics, it is also used to treat some forms of bipolar disorder, psychotic depression and Tourette syndrome.

Generally lower doses are used for autistic spectrum disorders than are used for schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis.

Risperido is now the most commonly prescribed antipsychotic medication in the U.S., with global sales of about $3.5 billion.

FDA said that the approval is based on two eight week studies conducted on 156 autistic patients aged between 5 to 16 years who took Risperdal or a Placebo. It was noted that the patients who were taking Risperdal had considerably better condition than those who were taking Placebo.

Johnson & Johnson said Risperdal does not help to cure the core symptoms of Autism like communication problems and trouble with social interactions, but "it has been shown to be beneficial in treating the associated behavioural disturbances that can interfere with school, learning and family life."

The oral drug does not come without side effects which include nausea, anxiety, dizziness, insomnia, low blood pressure, muscle stiffness, muscle pain, sedation, tremors, increased salivation and weight gain.

 

[Iconoclast]

somebody i know works for Boehringer-Ingelheim
he said that the buzz-word around the office is

Let's turn it into a disease!


that pretty much says it all...

 

[Ruth]

somebody i know works for Boehringer-Ingelheim
he said that the buzz-word around the office is

Let's turn it into a disease!


that pretty much says it all...

Does he work in marketing?

You'd think that if he was in research he would say "Let's find a cure and make lots of money", as there is lots of money to be made in the pharmaceutical industry.

 

[Iconoclast]

Does he work in marketing?

You'd think that if he was in research he would say "Let's find a cure and make lots of money", as there is lots of money to be made in the pharmaceutical industry.

nah, he is some analyst or business strategist...


oh, and CUREs are quite unprofitable - that's like selling a car that runs forever!

that's why i, off the top of my head, can't recall any CURE they are selling.
they only treat symptoms and with stuff that has lots of side-effects so they can prescribe some more of their product...


(sorry if my utter disgust at the pharmaceutical industry bleeds through :D)

 

[Pierre]

that's why i, off the top of my head, can't recall any CURE they are selling.
they only treat symptoms

I share most of the comments about pharmaceutical companies, which like any company serve the same main goal : maximizing shareholder (sustainable) wealth. This approach is even more cynical in the pharmaceutical field because here we deal with the health, the life and the suffering of human beings.

However this thread reminded me of a transcript :

Q: (S) I have been having some serious problems with joint pain in my fingers and I would like to know what to do to
make this better because I think that taking pain pills is something that hides the symptoms and does nothing for the
cause.
A: Not true, S, sometimes pain killers cure cause as well as symptom. This is simply reversal of therapy. The symptom
dies, thus cutting off the energy flow of the causative problem. Then the root cause dies if its "fuel supply" is interrupted
for an adequate duration.

 

[Iconoclast]

interesting excerpt, axel...

i guess this effect is quite unintended by the pharmas...


i'm not saying everything they do is bad -- like everything this subject has two sides to it.

i do a lot of work in pharma-to-doctors advertising and my cynicsm often gets the better of me. ;)
(and i often wonder how many people have serious ethical problems with their day-to-day work like me)