medical-industrial complex

Deadly Monopolies – Corporate Control of Life Itself

This is a must watch interview from Democracy Now. Harriet Washington discusses tissue trafficking, patents, universities and pharmaceutical corporations. Scary stuff, and this is only a tip of the iceberg.

“Deadly Monopolies”: Medical Ethicist Harriet Washington on How Firms are Taking Over Life Itself

One of the major themes raised by the Occupy movement is the increasing power of large corporations over more and more aspects of our lives. We spend the hour looking into the issue of the corporate control of life itself. Our guest, Harriet Washington, is a medical ethicist and has just published a book that examines the extent to which what she calls the medical-industrial complex has come to control human life. In the past 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone—many more patents are pending. Washington argues that the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies patenting these genes are more concerned with profit than with the health or medical needs of patients. Her new book is called “Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future.”

Another interview with a former pharmaceutical drug pusher who gives firsthand accounts of exactly how manipulative the whole industrial-medical complex is: Former BIG PHARMA Insider ~ Gwen Olsen ~ & Mike Adams. Gwen stresses how children are viewed as the biggest potential market for the industry.

Gwen Olsen spent fifteen years as a sales rep in the pharmaceutical industry working for health care giants including Johnson & Johnson, Syntex Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott Laboratories and Forest Laboratories.