Accountability

I am a strong believer in accountability. I also often think that big pharma is not held accountable for the costs of their medications to patients and only to their stockholders. I have been following two cases on-going in the media. The first is the idiot Shkreli who raised prices on medications and smirked at Congress when asked about it.

The second case is the one of the CEOs of New England Compounding Center who is on trial for 25 counts of second degree murder as a result of the national outbreak of fungal meningitis in 2012 which killed 64 people.

"In 2014, federal prosecutors charged 14 former owners, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians of NECC in connection with the tainted steroids. The racketeering indictment alleges that pharmacists failed to follow industry standards for cleanliness, used expired ingredients, and failed to test drugs for purity before sending them to hospitals and pain clinics. It also alleges that employees falsified logs to make it look as if the pharmacy's so-called clean rooms had been disinfected when they had not."

These are not nice people who did this. I am glad their executives are being punished. Seriously. You cannot expect me to believe that the employees came up with this on their own. I am sure that the orders came from above to cut corners.

Executives who order people to do wrong should be held accountable for the results. I am going to follow this trial as it unfolds.

Not only high prices but short changing!

Cancer drugs can be life savers, but also budget breaking, bankrupting expenses. And the blah, blah, blah from the pharma manufactuers are that they have programs for people who can't afford them.

Herceptin is one of those life saving drugs that do not come cheap, while saving many lives of women with Her2 positive breast cancers.

Now Genentech, manufacturer of Herceptin, has been accused not once, but multiple times of short changing hospitals in the amount of drugs provided. Of course, they are denying the claim. But since it didn't happen just once, I have very suspicious.

I try not to be cynical but when something happens more than once, it becomes a duck (walks like, talks like, etc.).

Who is with me on this?

I was totally disgusted but also happy when I read this article about this moron oncologist, Farid Fata, who told over 500 patients they had cancer and treated them unnecessarily. Or even if they had cancer, they continued to receive chemo long after they were in remission. The result? Hundreds of people with lasting health issues and even some deaths. Then I found this article with more background.

He also over billed Medicare and insurance companies for millions of dollars as patients received over 9,000 injections or infusions. Some received unnecessary chemo for over five years.

The only thing more despicable than people who claim they have cancer and don't to raise money for themselves, are doctors who mistreat patients like this.
I just want to get in line with all these other patients and smack him in the face for his lack of morals and crimes.Who is with me on this?

But is it murder?

A divorced mom was recently convicted of attempted murder for withholding cancer medications from her son who had leukemia.

I know I don't have all the details but have the basics. The boy was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006 with a 95% chance for full recovery if treatments were followed. The boy was in primary custody of the mother. She did not give him his treatments because she thought they were making him sicker. The father sued for custody but it was too late and the boy died in 2009. The father has also since died in a motorcycle accident. This week the mother was convicted in court of attempted murder for withholding the medication and causing his death. She faces up to 47 years in jail.

It is one thing if you are adult and able to make decisions on your own and do your own research to educate yourself to choose. Its another thing if a couple are faced with a terminally ill child and can make a joint decision on what they want to do. There are others, many fundamental Christians, who do not accept modern medicine and that is because of a belief. But its another case if one parent withholds treatment for a curable illness because she doesn't understand it and its side effects.

In my opinion, she is guilty of attempted murder, child endangerment, and stupidity. If she didn't understand the medication and its side effects, she should have voiced her concerns to her son's doctors to learn more. She could have reached out for additional help. This is right up there with a diabetic who won't test their blood and continues to eat two doughnuts a day - a suicide mission but she did it to someone else.

I feel a doctor's treatment suggestions are a request to follow or not but it is my choice with a full understanding of the consequences. The doctor recommends PT for my knee and I am supposed to do the damn exercises ever day (I really do mean to but often forget because I am a spaceshot). I know this means my knee will hurt longer because I am lazy when all I really want is for my knee to stop hurting. But it is my decision.

As a mother she should have been looking out for her son's best interests, not succumbing to her fears. Her ex-husband realized this but it was too late. And the boy is dead with no chance for a long and healthy life.