Abbott Laboratories agrees to $1.6 billion settlement over marketing of Depakote:

Global pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories has agreed to pay federal and state governments $1.6 billion in criminal and civil fines for illegally promoting unapproved uses of its drug Depakote, including to sedate elderly patients in nursing homes, officials announced Monday.

It is always about the money no matter what segment of the business world we are dealing with.

Abbott’s slogan has something to be desired. It should read  “Abbott – A promise for life and maybe death”.

The drug Depakote, which the FDA had approved to treat three conditions: epileptic seizures, migraines, and the manic episodes experienced by people with bipolar disorder.

After extensive studies it was determined in 1999 that the drug was not all it was said to be and had some very disturbing side effect which included; incidence of drowsiness, dehydration and anorexia in elderly study participants. At that time Abbott was asked to discontinue the promotion and sale of the drug.

Being that Abbott, like other greedy corporate giants had their own financial interest at heart rather than the health and welfare of the public, they continued to push their defective product until 2006.

Another example of one of many companies that puts profit before safety.

It is documented that the Ford Motor Company suppressed information about the Pinto that resulted in over 500 deaths due to a faulty gas tank.

For more than eight years after the problem surfaced, Ford successfully lobbied, with extraordinary vigor and some blatant lies, against a key government safety standard that would have forced the company to change the Pinto’s fire-prone gas tank.

By conservative estimates Pinto crashes have caused 500 burn deaths to people who would not have been seriously injured if the car had not burst into flames. The figure could be as high as 900.

Ford’s top brass calculated it was cheaper to settle the law suits than to fix the problem. “What the hell are 500 lives or so”?

So much for corporate honesty. It is a shame to say, these corporate thieves are killing the very people that are keep them in business and they are doing it without shame.

I can still see the tobacco company executives sitting on their high and mighty thrones in congress, lying through their teeth, denying that smoking causes cancer. I have no idea how these criminals can sleep at night.

I don’t believe that the penalties imposed against these killers is stringent enough. They should be put out of business and sent to the cross bar hotel for awhile.  It would be one thing if a problem existed and they didn’t know it but to continue to sell a product that the manufacturer knows for certain has the potential to kill someone, they should be brought up on murder charges.

It always has been and always will be that “money talks and s— walks”.  The common citizen is on the bottom of the heap.

Any company that has the resources to pay 1.6 billion in fines and still has not miss any meals; demonstrates just how much money these backdoor bandits are making with their outrageous prices for drugs.  Anyone that has filled a prescription lately can attest to that.