Big Pharma Isn’t in the Business of Saving Lives

• Big Pharma prioritizes financial gain over saving lives, discontinuing unprofitable medicines even when patients desperately need them, causing preventable deaths worldwide
• Pharmaceutical companies artificially create scarcity by withdrawing established medicines, then reintroducing them at higher prices to maximize profits and control markets
• Despite regulations, pharmaceutical companies consistently overpower governments in negotiations, setting arbitrary prices that citizens and health care systems cannot afford or challenge
• Critical medications for cancer, allergies, and rare diseases become unavailable due to supply manipulation, forcing doctors to ration treatments using wartime triage methods
• To avoid pharmaceutical dependency, focus on optimizing natural health through avoiding processed oils, improving gut health, reducing toxin exposure, and enhancing detoxification

Medicine is supposed to save lives, but this isn’t even the focus of Big Pharma. Instead, it’s in the business of making money. This is what the documentary “Big Pharma — How Profits Kill Patients” by ENDEVR shows.¹

One of the primary themes highlighted in this film is the shortage of medications worldwide. According to the narrator, “Today, there are stock shortages of medicine even in rich countries.” As seen in the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals experienced shortages in medicine, equipment, and other items medical professionals need to treat patients.

Even worse, this is still happening today — Patients are dying because they’re not getting the medicine they need. The reason? Big Pharma discontinued their production because they’re “unprofitable.”

What Happens When a Drug Stops Making Money?

As noted by the narrator, “health is an international business.” Hospitals around the world rely on medical devices and medicines to help treat patients. However, supply issues are now a prominent problem.

• Medicines are now getting harder to come by — Yannis Natsis, a policy manager at European Public Health Alliance, said that despite the massive profits of Big Pharma, shortages are occurring:

“In the past, it was only a problem that had to do with southern Europe or Eastern Europe and now, it touches upon even the richest and wealthiest EU member states in the west. And this is why this issue has gained a bit more prominence.”

• Big Pharma always wins — While being bound by laws, drug manufacturers always seem to have an upper hand on governments and doctors because they’re too important. As one expert noted, “In the arm wrestling between the pharmaceutical industry and governments, the pharmaceutical industry invariably wins.”
• Priorities are always on the moneymakers — In Mexico, 1,600 have died due to medicine shortages. Yet, Viagra is always available, demonstrating how Big Pharma values its different consumer groups.
• Digging deeper into the supply issue — Globalization has allowed health institutions to purchase medicines from around the world, but this is causing pressure among buyers when faced with shortages. As one hospital pharmacist explains:

“We’ve stopped being supplied with numerous molecules and medicines. This concerns 69 products at the moment and we’ve been faced with 17 new ones over the last three weeks. If I take a list of molecules today, we have shortages of completely classic medicines.”

The Economics Behind Medicines

Competition within Big Pharma is fierce. Whenever a new drug is produced, governments allow the manufacturer special privileges to maintain profitability.

• Patents are held for a long time — The documentary explains how manufacturers control the prices once a new drug enters the market:

“The profitability of a drug evolves with time. At the beginning, the medication is protected by a patent. A high price is accorded to the maker who has the monopoly on sales for 10 to 20 years. This is the most profitable period when the price and volume of sales are at their highest. When the patent expires, the drug can be copied in generic form. It therefore becomes less profitable due to the reduction in price and the competition.”

• Big Pharma manipulates the market — Despite knowing the importance of certain medicines, Big Pharma willingly removes them to create scarcity. Natsis explains:

“We see a lot of products, a lot of medicines, which have been widely used. And long-established medicines being withdrawn from the market only to be reintroduced to the market with higher prices, for instance. Or, there is a push to say that ‘if you don’t want to have shortages then you need to pay the highest.'”

• Another example of Big Pharma’s lack of cooperation — In another interview, a teenager explains that she has allergies and needs an epinephrine pen to keep the symptoms at bay. However, ALK, the manufacturer that makes them, has discontinued production, despite hundreds of thousands relying on this life-saving drug:

“ALK laboratory produces them for 500,000 clients around the world. But in 2017, it stopped selling auto injectors in Spain. It refused a government-imposed price drop. For patients the product became difficult to obtain.”

• Big Pharma doesn’t want to be controlled — While manufacturers set the price, governments also do their best to lower it to ensure all citizens have immediate access. However, as the vice president for the epinephrine manufacturer justifies:

“When we launched the product, it was €34 back in 2011 in Spain. Then, there was a price decrease or a few, but at least it ended on €27. And then there was the last imposed price decrease in 2018, getting it down to less than €24. That was the last draw for me.

The €24 would be, by far, the lowest price in Europe, and this comes back to my point that in essence, you could say the one who pays the lowest price, eventually, it will be the price for everyone. This would kill then the entire business force. And this was why I said, ‘Sorry, dear Spanish government. We cannot honor this anymore. It’s impossible for us the price was already too low.’ We need to say, ‘no thank you.'”

What Happens When Cancer Patients Can’t Get Treatment?

Bladder cancer affects tens of thousands of people worldwide, and they rely on certain medications to maintain their condition. One example is BCG-Medac. In France, however, it’s been in shortage for several years because, as you can guess, it’s not as profitable as other medicines.

• Cancer medication supply is being controlled — BCG-Medac “is experiencing severe supply difficulties,” explains a hospital pharmacist interviewed in the documentary.
• A quota system develops — According to the documentary, supply shortages give rise to a medical quota system. Here, medicines in short supply are only given to priority patients, making them unavailable to people who are also just as deserving in receiving treatment.
• Other labs are not interested in saving lives — A French patient explains that he needs BCG-Medac for his bladder cancer. However, his urologist told him that there are no treatments available:

“Since 2020, only the German laboratory Medac sells this treatment in France but it does not have the capacity to fill hospital demand. And none of the large laboratories are interested in this old medication resulting from a vaccine invented more than a century ago. The famous BCG [vaccine] given to children against tuberculosis.”

• Triage is now commonplace — The practice of prioritizing which patients to treat comes from wartime experiences. To distribute BCG-Medac, a French professor was forced to apply a triage scheme:

“It’s always difficult to tell a patient they can’t have access to treatment. But if this has to be the case, it’s better that medical reasons be used to select or — to use a word that mustn’t be abused — sort patients. By which I mean in terms of gravity of the illness.

It was above all to ensure equity of medical access across the country, so that a patient in a remote region wouldn’t have less chance of access to treatment than somebody in a large city. It was also to make sure there was no financial influence, that a wealthy patient would not have more chance of receiving treatment.”

How Are Drug Prices Set?

In an effort to keep medicines in stock, as well as prices down, governments are always meeting with representatives of Big Pharma to find a middle ground. The documentary explains how this process works in France:

• A committee is formed — Representatives from the government and drug manufacturers discuss via committees. Philippe Bouyoux, president of the Economic Committee for Health Products, explains that “for every medicine, we examine the proposition made by a laboratory, and the committee reacts accordingly.” Going deeper into this:

“Each week, the committee brings together representatives from the health and finance ministries behind closed doors. This is where the arm wrestling between the state and the laboratories takes place.

For each drug, we look at the medical service which it provides, then we consider it for this particular health objective … It’s quite a challenge to satisfy the expectations and needs of patients without putting in danger the sustainability of the public purse.”

• Supply prices and distribution are abused by Big Pharma — The documentary also interviewed a Belgian mother whose child has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic illness affecting 1 in 10,000 children. However Zolgensma, a gene therapy available for this disease, was priced at a whopping $2.125 million by Novartis — impossible for ordinary citizens.

Furthermore, the gene therapy was only released in the U.S. “In Europe, it was neither reimbursable nor even approved by the European Medicines Agency,” the documentary explains. Fortunately, the mother was able to help her daughter through a fundraising campaign.

• Big Pharma will give you the cold shoulder — If you can’t pay the price set by manufacturers, they will ignore you. The mother shares her experience:

“Novartis contacted us saying that they sympathized. That they were deeply touched by our story, but that they couldn’t give us a reduction. In fact, what they said was if you don’t have the $2 million, she can’t have the treatment.”

• Prices are pulled out of thin air sometimes — How does a single drug cost millions of dollars? While companies’ base prices on manufacturing costs, certain products are priced arbitrarily. As noted by the documentary:

“Novartis did not calculate the price in terms of production costs, but instead, according to what society is prepared to pay to have access to the treatment.”

• Monopolies are hurting citizens — Manufacturers can set high prices for special medications because of its rarity. While problematic, it is still legal, and no one can challenge Big Pharma, as they’re too powerful. If a patient was able to purchase the medication they need, they’re now drowning in medical debt. Wilbert Bannenberg, president of the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, explains:

“Pharmaceutical companies have the right to do this. It isn’t forbidden. They have the monopoly. They ask the price which they consider right, but it’s like throwing a life belt to somebody who’s drowning. Then, when the person asks, ‘How much do I owe you?’ You reply, ‘I saved your life. You’ll live for another 20 years, so that’s 20 times €80,000 which makes €1.6 million.'”

What Happened When Mexico Challenged Big Pharma?

Governments know how strong Big Pharma’s grip on economies, and many are trying to challenge this powerful group. In Mexico, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador canceled corrupt contracts, closed unsafe plants, and tried to import generics.

• A systematic reset is needed — In a press conference, Obrador explains, “The whole system was defective. Production, distribution, and the buying of medicaments. It was just another business. But we are talking about medicaments. And there was so much corruption as well.”
• Exposing the drawbacks of corruption — The government of Mexico singled out PiSA Farmaceutica, which is responsible for half of the anticancer drugs sold in the country. Here’s what authorities found afterward:

“The drug agency inspected their factory and realized that it wasn’t up to standard. Bacteria had spread through the laboratory when the production line was halted. What did PiSA do? PiSA met with the directors of the agency and tried to pressure them into production to continue without carrying out improvements.”

• Big Pharma isn’t afraid to fight back — When the government of Mexico closed down several factories due to poor conditions, PiSA refused to supply the market. Consequently, this showed how drug manufacturers are able to influence public health simply because they don’t want to be held accountable.

How to Avoid the Crutches of Big Pharma

With Big Pharma’s hands on public health, what can you do? The best solution is to optimize your health so you don’t have to rely on medications to keep you alive. Not only will you feel better every day, but you’ll also be free from medical debt. To get you started, here are my latest recommendations, which I shared with Sean Kim of Growth Minds:

1. Avoid linoleic acid — Minimize your intake of vegetable oils, as these are high rich in linoleic acid (LA). Normally found in ultraprocessed foods, LA impairs mitochondrial function, increases inflammation, and heightens your sensitivity to sun damage.
2. Use healthy carbohydrates for fuel — Reintroduce healthy carbohydrates gradually, aiming for around 200 to 250 grams daily based on individual needs. For an in-depth explanation on this topic, read “The Hidden Triggers of Insulin Resistance and How to Restore Balance.”
3. Enhance your gut health — Maintain a healthy gut environment by diversifying your gut microbiome through fermented foods.
4. Minimize exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals — Avoid plastics, synthetic fragrances, and oral contraceptives that disrupt hormones and mitochondrial function.
5. Reduce your electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure — Limit exposure to wireless technologies by turning off Wi-Fi at night, switching your phone to airplane mode, and using wired connections for your devices to prevent cellular oxidative stress.
6. Get regular exercise — Being physically active will not only strengthen your body, but it will also give your immune system a boost. In addition, sweating is one of the best ways to detox heavy metals and other toxins from your system, helping reduce your risk of chronic illnesses.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Big Pharma’s Effects on Public Health

Q: Why are essential medications increasingly unavailable, even in wealthy countries?

A: Despite record profits, Big Pharma is discontinuing less profitable medications, leading to widespread shortages. These shortages affect even basic, life-saving drugs, with hospitals reporting gaps in the availability of critical treatments. The issue has grown severe enough to impact even the wealthiest EU nations, not just traditionally under-resourced regions.

Q: What drives Big Pharma’s decision-making regarding which drugs to produce?

A: Profitability is the primary motivator. Drugs lose their market value once patents expire, leading companies to abandon or reprice them, even if they are still medically essential. Companies may withdraw old medications only to reintroduce them later at significantly higher prices, exploiting monopolistic control and manipulating scarcity.

Q: How do these shortages and price hikes affect patients globally?

A: Patients are often the ones who suffer, especially those needing chronic or life-saving treatments. For instance, bladder cancer patients in France face limited access to BCG-Medac due to low profitability, and in Mexico, over 1,600 people have died due to medication shortages. Quota systems are now common, meaning some patients are denied treatment based on illness severity or location.

Q: What role do governments play in regulating drug prices, and how does Big Pharma respond?

A: Governments try to negotiate fair pricing through dedicated committees, but pharmaceutical companies often resist, sometimes withdrawing drugs from the market when faced with price controls. A notable example includes the withdrawal of epinephrine injectors in Spain after the government enforced a price drop. The imbalance of power allows Big Pharma to largely dictate terms.

Q: What can individuals do to protect themselves from the failings of the pharmaceutical industry?

A: Proactive health maintenance is needed to reduce dependence on pharmaceuticals. Different lifestyle changes are needed to support a holistic approach, such as reducing linoleic acid intake, eating healthy carbohydrates, supporting gut health, avoiding endocrine-disrupting chemicals, minimizing EMF exposure, and promoting detoxification through regular exercise.

• ¹ YouTube, ENDEVR, December 11, 2024