Pharmaceutical Fraud: Join the Live Chat
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Tonight on 360°, a brazen case of health care fraud at the world's largest pharmaceutical company. If a person had done what this company did, they would have locked him up and thrown away the key, but as you'll see that didn't happen. They got special treatment. Plus, more of Anderson's interview with Chaz Bono, who used to be Chastity. He explains why he made the transformation from female to male.
Scroll down to join the live chat during the program. It's your chance to share your thoughts on tonight's headlines. Keep in mind, you have a better chance of having your comment get past our moderators if you follow our rules.
Here are some of them:
1) Keep it short (we don't have time to read a "book")
2) Don't write in ALL CAPS (there's no need to yell)
3) Use your real name (first name only is fine)
4) No links
5) Watch your language (keep it G-rated; PG at worst - and that includes $#&*)
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What has happened to this country? Isn't it obvious that we are slaves to the private industries, as has been pointed out over and over and over. Our government doesn't work anymore. And we STILL have people afraid of socialism–which if you ask me, seems far more preferable than what we are going through. Where are the TEETH to reign in all this corruption???
I was a sales rep for Pfizer after college, I quit after about 2-3 months...it doesn't take a genius to realize the stats they use are unethically adjusted to "sell" to doctors...I quit, and graduated from grad school a few years later. We need to hold them responsible for twisting their statistics, which by the way, are from their own private studies anyway...
Tough decision here–
It seems the only thing to deter Pfizer from subsequent offenses is either stricter fines or possible jail sentences to high ranking executives.
You can't put the number one drug company in the world out of business. The consequences would be catastrophic to the American healthcare system.
One word.....DISGRACEFUL!!!
And we wonder why our society is so crooked. If you can't get the big bad guys, brush it off as "the cost of doing business"? Really? DISGRACEFUL!
2Mike, formerly from Syracuse.
I agree with you, let them fall and other drug companys could fill the gap!
The concept of too big to fail is to harmful to continue.
Pfizer should take full responsibility! This company is just like all the rest including General Motors and Toyota. Just get the numbers, never mind the quality of the product and what affect it has on the People. As long as they get the millions of dollars! Damn shame!!!
That was an outstanding report by Drew! 😛
@Jo Ann,
You made it in time to see Father Boyle! 🙂
Hello everyone!!!
Didn´t Michael Moore mention Wall Street and the farmaceutical industry in the same sentence?! First the world economy what´s next?!
Keeping research back on the workings of SSRI's (paxil, paroxotine, seroxat) by an other company, now this. an industry that is to big to fail....
and we all in one way or on other depend on. It's scary stuf..
@dianne, does the drug company still hold the patent & how long did it take them to develop and test trial it and how much $$ did they put into that research?
The difference btwn "gender" and "sex" often gets confused...
Sex is determined by a combination of your external genitalia, internal reproductive organs, chromosomes, and secondary sexual characteristics (adam's apple etc)
Gender is the result of socially constructed ideas about the behavior, actions, and roles a particular sex performs. Sex can be a determining factor in gender...or not. Gender is influenced by societal roles & norms, personal feelings, and a zillion other things.
We always used to say "Gender is in your head, sex is in your pants" to shorten it up for highschool students!
"Pfizer might be to be to nail, but not to be to fall!' Tim-b-e-r!!!
Sounds like we would be better off to get our drugs from Cannada .
Oh...prison. Prison would be nice.
$2 Billion–3 months profit...got off easy.
The Pfizer story infuriates me. Creating all those companies to take the fall for their criminal acts.
I don't know how i missed this story!!What an outrage!!What a racket!!
I am sick to death of this "too big" to fail, nail, etc. We need to stop corporations from gowing or merging into Giants!
Are doctors culpable for prescribing does that exceeded recommended amounts?
Terrific report by Drew!
It’s crazy what people will do for money. Pfizer didn’t get the punishment they deserve. They are a snake in the weeds.
Wow. Great way of explaining the dastardly deeds of Pfizer with the signs and whiteboard.
Can't the U.S. fine the you-know-what out of them?
@Emily, Thanks, better late than never!
Yes, this is a great report by Drew.
Is Chaz on a testosterone-therapy program?
As I'm listening to this, I feel like I'm in a (really bad) scene of "Goodfellas"!
Good evening everyone. TGIF. Hope you all have a great weekend. Interesting topics Anderson. Your interview with Chaz was great. I learned alot. Pharmaceutical fraud? No surprise there. Their profits are so extreme they just have to have more.
So if Pfizer had to collapse, other drug companies would have bought up the existing drug patents and kept on going.
-@ Mike
Ever heard of the quote "I think, threfore, I am"? They may not be in all complete technicality MALE as in, XY, but they may have been exposed to so much testosterone in the womb that their brain chemistry, and some endocrine glands, changes to respond in a way more suitable to the gender, opposite to which their chromosomes indicate. I would not call them ill, as they really don't have a "harmful" condition, and it does not impair their ability to function as a human being.
@Christine
I am here thinking that it has to do with the cells and homones etc. Are you saying that it is more of a mindset?
Good evening Anderson, Isabel, Emily, Starr, Megan, everyone. Sorry I'm late, getting some leaking during the rain.
Glad to see Secy. of State Clinton standing up for the middle east peace process.
Good eveing Stephanie Elam!
Has anything happened to Pfizer?
Or will anything happen to Pfizer, or are they really "too big to nail"?
If so, it seems worse than the maifa!
All these stories about huge businesses running wild. Now Pfizer is another one. It's like America has been a town in the wild, wild west for the past 9 years and now Congress and Obama have decided to be the new sheriff in town.
I say, more power to the new sheriffs. Political philosophies aside, these big businesses always end up hurting consumers when they go wild and ignore all ethics and laws.
@Jo Ann,
Glad to see you made it tonight! 😛
this is a great! story here ....pharmaceutical fraud...geez!
@Emily
Yes, Anderson is doing job for interview as well...... I do love his conduct question for people, You're right! Agreed! 🙂
Drugs are drugs. No matter how you slice them.
When I grew up, it was clearly defined what was "normal".
Meanwhlle I am 61 years old and glad that we are living in a world where "normal" is not just to be like the average, but can include every sexual orientation and transgenders and in a world where it is even possible to talk about this openly on the media.
Chaz Bono changing his gender will not cure his psychological problems.
@Emily –that "lady kiler" gives me the creeps too!
@Vince
My best guess is probably not, seeing as it all comes down to the way the specific person views themself.
So, unless science finds a way to read the minds of babies before birth, I don't think it would happen.
I don't think i have a "side" to the issue. I'm a christian, but I don't think members of the LGBT community should be persecuted. "If any one of you is without sin, let him cast the first stone." I think people should be happy, and do whatever makes them so.
@Karoline,
"I can't believe the writers actually called him a "lady killer"."
I can't believe that he was actually allowed on the show with his past convict(s) of Child Abuse!
Calling him a "lady-killer" is just another nail....
Speaking as gay woman I understand the kind of things chaz has gone threw in life. When he was a woman he had to deal with thinking he might be gay and wondering why he felt that way. Then he had to deal with parts of him that didn't seem right. Its so easy for lesbian women to think they are just "butch" but even dressing manly doesn't do it for them. I have often wondered the same thing myself. I hated when my breasts started to grow but there are parts of my body i wouldn't change for the world. I have a feeling Chaz never really felt like that. The part that gets me is this has become a matter of public opinion. This is something personal to him and should not be judged on in anyway. He is the child of Cher does that mean he can not have a personal issue? He didnt ask to be born the way he was he just was. I admire him for taking control and making his own skin a safe home.
@Mike, formerly from Syracuse, "Why isn't a person born one gender thinking they are another not considered mentally ill?"
I can't say that every one who goes through this transformation is not mentally ill, but I think on some level you can compare it to the belief in the 1900s that people like Van Gogh, who suffered from epilepsy, were mentally ill.
If it's so natural Chaz then whats up with the hormone therapy?
@Emily and Karen – agree with you completly on the "lady killer".....definitely creepy!
Has anyone determined the cause of this condition? Do fetuses get too much or not enough of some hormone or chemical? To call the 'natural' is well unnatural.
Yes @Emily
He was, he is also killer, he give me creep too.
i think that the closer a person is in touch with themselves, the more likely they are to be able to identify discrepancies between inner and outer feelings.
how various people resolve those feelings is very much personal journey, in a search to become truly comfortable with oneself, from the inside out.
I'm REALLY looking forward to the interview with Father Boyle 😛
I have loved this entire series of looking back on what has been going on in Hollenback!
@Sherri –I don't think so –but maybe with the hormones therapy certain things will grow other shrink...not sure about that.
So if Chaz has no Y-chromosome then how can he be male? Does this happen in nature as well?
Hello Stephanie! 🙂
Good to see you again.
@ Sherri,
No, Chaz would not be able to father children as he would have been born as a female, and the pathways necessary for conception and giving birth would most likely be either compromised or destroyed entirely.