The following story came out a couple of hours ago about Merck agreeing to pay 4.85 billion to settle the 50,000 or so lawsuits against them.

 

 

At face value, this would appear to be a major blow to Big Pharma. But here’s the thing that chaps my ass - Merck is going to charge it off on pre-tax earnings which means the taxpayers will bear most of the load. Here’s an excerpt:

 

"Merck said it will take a pretax charge for the full $4.85 billion in the current quarter. It would not say whether insurance will cover any of that, but said much of the charge will be tax deductible."

 

So they literally get away with murder! Where are the criminal charges?  What about the air-head drug reps and doctors who touted it as the safest pain-killer of all time?

 

This $4.85 billion settlement is a slap on the wrist to a band of murderers. There were more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths caused by Vioxx. This paltry settlement won’t cause Merck to break it’s stride. They will continue to push dangerous products: Can you say HPV vaccine? Yea, the one given to innocent teen girls!  Too bad those folks who suffered from pain didn’t know about the SAFE and EFFECTIVE pain killer I designed 4 years ago: JointFX.  Its been used for prevention and reversal of severe joint pain.  I even used it when I broke my ankle and collar bone riding my mountain bike at break-neck speeds downhill….That’s stupid.  But not as stupid as a pretty drug rep selling Vioxx.  Get JointFX here: http://health-fx.net/store/product.php?productid=16148&cat=263&page=1

JointFX is on sale for 25% off!  Get it: http://health-fx.net/store/product.php?productid=16148&cat=263&page=1