Who Runs Washington? The Long Reach of Big Pharma

big_pharma_controlBy Tony Cartalucci

Like a mythical sea monster, the true nature of a Wall Street-London centered global corporatocracy is often talked about but rarely seen. However, on rare occasions, a tentacle breaks the surface and affords the public an opportunity to examine and assess its true, gargantuan dimensions.

Just such a moment occurred when leaked diplomatic letters from the Colombian Embassy in Washington D.C. revealed just how far the United States government is willing to go on behalf of the corporate-financier interests that clearly shape the entirety of its foreign policy.

The Intercept would report in its article, “Leaks Show Senate Aide Threatened Colombia Over Cheap Cancer Drug,” that:

Leaked diplomatic letters sent from Colombia’s Embassy in Washington describe how a staffer with the Senate Finance Committee, which is led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, warned of repercussions if Colombia moves forward on approving the cheaper, generic form of a cancer drug.

The drug is called imatinib [Gleevec]. Its manufacturer, Novartis, markets the drug in Colombia as Glivec. The World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines last year suggested it as treatment not only for chronic myeloid leukemia, but also gastrointestinal tumors. Currently, the cost of an annual supply is over $15,000, or about two times the average Colombian’s income.

The repercussions included threats to derail the $450 million “Peace Colombia” initiative aimed at ending decades of fighting in the South American nation that has claimed nearly a quarter of a million lives.

Leveraging peace and stability in Colombia to force Bogotá to capitulate to pharmaceutical giants like Novartis seems extreme, but upon closer examination of other episodes in recent history – including the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, the subversion of Libya and Syria, and admitted US ambitions to encircle and contain China, such coercion is a common feature of the Wall Street-London centric “international order” Washington eagerly promotes.

What is perhaps most appalling about this most recent episode is that Novartis’ “patent” is for a drug developed using public funding over several decades through the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Indeed, in 1990, NIH-funded researcher Dr. Brian Druker began developing model systems integral to bringing “Glivec” to market. He would eventually partner directly with Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) before clinical trials began.

The NIH’s own report, “Fighting Cancer: Ushering in a New Era of Molecular Medicine (.pdf),” would proudly admit:

The NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI), along with many other public and private organizations, played a vital role in developing Gleevec®.

The nature of pharmaceutical giants building fortunes upon publicly funded research, with Gleevec serving as a primary example, was in even the subject of an entire paper published by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the title, “Public R&D Investments and Private-sector Patenting: Evidence from NIH Funding Rules (.pdf).”

Who Runs Washington?

If corporate-financier interests would jeopardize the peace and stability of an entire nation to maintain a monopoly over a single pharmaceutical – developed not even by them, but by publicly funded research – what would these same sort of corporate-financier interests do if the stakes were infinitely higher – say as high as pushing through a region-wide trade deal that would give such interests monopolies not over a single chemical compound, but over entire industries?

It is clear that elected representatives in Washington, London, and across the rest of the European Union do not represent the interests of those who elected them. Instead, they are clearly subject to and instruments of corporate-financier special interests – not just from across the pharmaceutical industry, but from a variety of industries ranging from finance and banking to big-oil, big-ag, and big-defense.

Understanding this simple truth – demonstrated unequivocally amid Washington’s latest row with its “ally” Colombia – is the first step in formulating a means to rebalance this inequity.

Dealing With Unwarranted Influence

The leaks revealing Washington’s handling of Colombia, however, provide a valuable potential means of confronting and confounding this immense, unwarranted influence in the immediate future.

The leaks take pressure off the Colombian government itself and put the narrative into the hands of third parties who can more credibly pass on the information to the public. Other nations facing behind-the-scenes coercion might likewise use the “leaked communique” method to take pressure off of themselves, and shift it onto the immense corporate-financier interests bearing down on them.

For the pharmaceutical industry specifically – which has attempted to guard its monopolies under the pretext of providing humanity with invaluable, irreplaceable products and services essential for humanity’s well-being – since pharmaceuticals and other medical therapies are indeed essential matters of life and death, they should be nationalized and the “intellectual property” held by these corporations – paid for by public funding – should be rendered as opensource. This arrangement would be not entirely unlike how the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) approaches space exploration.

For corporate-financier special interests in general, it is essential for both individual nations and local communities around the world to create alternatives to these monopolies and begin the process of systematically and permanently boycotting and replacing them. Not only will this redistribute wealth pragmatically rather than politically, it will create a more equitable balance of power geopolitically.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook”.


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22 Comments on "Who Runs Washington? The Long Reach of Big Pharma"

  1. big pharma, does not run the world but the people who run big pharma, are part of the reptilian elite that do run the world, they do not have the same feelings as you and me, they only enjoy the pain and the suffering they cause, they feed off the flesh and souls of children, they create wars because it gives them the power and the control over us, and because they do not have the spirituality of normal people, they do not belong on this earth.

  2. Pig pHARMaceuticals morphed from I.G.Farben that in turn morphed into the present day corporate conglomerates (Dow Bayer Mon$atan Du Pont et al)…was created by the Old Black Nobility families of the pyramid cap 0.01% bloodlines, prior to WWII…being the same despicable Bankster’s that create all the wars & usurious misery of imperialist demo/genocide.

    • No kidding… i loved trying to pronounce kakistocratic and now I love saying it…. thanks!

      • …(or kakistocracy)…”if the shoe fits….wear it”…I always try to expand my vocabulary as it encourages the plasticity of your neurons to make new connections …especially when one is advancing in years…along with a daily spoonful of virgin coconut oil (the brain luvs the trans fats)…Cheers Amanda

        • Logophiles of the world unite!

          • eddysachs | June 12, 2016 at 1:01 pm |

            …if that’s ‘your’ photo …you’re very attractive…real beauty & brains is becoming a rare combo in this narcissistic world..(I’m still an anabashed flirt) …hahhaha!-…cheers

      • How handy to know a word with so much contemporary applicability.

    • Thanks Eddy. Some good words you introduce here.
      In one of the languages where I live the word “kak” is the grossest expression for excrement. Most other ethnic groups around here now tend to incorporate the word for added cursing value.
      So, kakistocracy has special significance here when relating to the resource confiscating, gangster rat bureaucracy that masquerades as “government”.

  3. Well, I think of of this way. The pragmatic way. These chemotherapy drugs do not work, they are useless. Patients that use them die earlier and in pain and poor. Do not feel bad. I do feel bad however for the millions who blindly trust pharma and do not know how to help themselves and others

    • I agree! I developed a problem over 10 years ago due to a parasite or something, even though I had bites, stings, and other symptoms most of those symptoms were ignored and I was diagnosed with delusional parasitosis. I went through 3 drug tests to prove to my doctor I was not on street drugs, went for second opinions at various dermatologists where I was treated terribly, and was put on an antipsychotic which made me tired, flat-like no emotions, gain weight and made the parasite problem better as far as symptoms but did not take the problem away or identifying it. My doctor expected I would be on this drug for LIFE, I would be labeled mentally disordered for life and when I expressed concern about that my doctor actually suggested I fight for disability (For the rest of my life) saying it would be a battle but I could win it and she would help by testifying on my behalf. I thanked her for the “help”, walked out never to return, and went off the drug. Since then I have had 2 relapses, though all 3 episodes have been different.I have been researching the Internet for years and was able to identify the parasite in the second episode as toxoplasmosis Gondi, had the blood test and I was right. This third time seemed to be the result of a parasite that had gotten stronger and smarter than the first two and caused some pretty frightening symptoms. My insurance was Kaiser and guess what- delusional parasitosis they stubbornly insisted. Luckily, I had been following morgellons research, contacted researchers out of the US who diagnosed me and gave me treatment protocol. Monsanto and GMO farming are the reason for my bacterial infection, specifically agrobacterium, but both they and big pharma are pulling purse strings so that the CDC and medical community do not research or act on what they already know about this. Why? So that I take antipsychotics for the rest of my life, so that we don’T find out for sure about the dangers in GMO food, so that they grow richer, never mind they are making us sick and taking lives. It is unacceptable. When this info came out in 2008 many countries outlawed GMO farming. Not us. Need any more proof that our government is not serving our best interests and cannot be trusted to protect us? We’ll all probably be rounded up soon, and placed in FEMA camps that our tax dollars built to prison us and make us slaves to a NWO with Obama as world dictator! Not me!

  4. Here and now – FREE PERFECT HEALTH to all 7 billion people : go RAW VEGAN and heal all physical, mental and even genetic disordes for FREE !
    I stopped polyarthris, and pre-diabetes in my own body ! I don’t need glasses any more! Now, I have super energy !
    On Youtube you can find informations out of first hand too…
    BENEDICTION TO ALL

    • Going vegan works perfectly to give your body what you really need & will cure most ‘dis-eases’ caused by the crap they want us all to eat…as long as you’re Ph is balanced & not acidic -get cheap Ph test-strips from local pharmacy to check with a desirable reading of 7 (thereabouts)….I concur with the efficacy of good health results switching to a Vegan/Vegetarian lifestyle…it saved my life!…cheers

      • There is a lot of misinformation on vegan issue – people do not know that Pythagoras ate only RAW VEGAN and created the base for our modern acheavetments: not only mathemathics, but music and philosophy were all founded by Pythagora who was a Serb and never spoke a word of Greek !
        All vegetarians were called “pythagorians” untill XIX century when English aristocrates invented “vegetarian” out of scorn. In XI century Vatican decided to kill all Spanish vegetarians – this is a religious issue too ! You have to eat body of the “god” and to drink his blood!
        Now, on Internet in French language you can find that there is Vit. B in cacao /chocolate… but in English you will find as first information that is dangerous to go vegan – this is absolutely criminal disinformation!
        I am a Pythagorean! It’s all about media war for Truth. Thanks for message.

  5. Wow, I am totally ignorant about the incredible span of Serbian history and depth of Serbian culture. What is being hidden from us by this complete black-out of Serbian social influence?

    Your information certainly highlights the sinister components in the devastation of Serbia by US and Nato bombing. All covered up and misrepresented by the decrepit, satanic mass media.

    Thank you for this enlightenment.

  6. Thank you for expanding on a graphic example of how the overpaid fat cat politicians and their staff misuse and abuse their official power to benefit Big Pharma and other global corporations. How can we stop this? And, on the same point, let me expound on the fact that none of the Mainstream Media has as yet even mentioned the lawsuit filed by T. Matthew Phillips, a California lawyer, to stop SB 277, the law the mandates vaccinations, which will begin as of July 1, 2016. So, it’s not just politicians, already bought and paid for, who are suppressing the truth, oppressing those trying to benefit their own people and assisting big corporations in raping the world. Yes, it’s the Mainstream Media. Big Pharma who stand to make Big Profits by increasing the numbers of vaccinations and injections forced on Americans, have the owners of tv and print media in their pockets. So, come on Activist Post, where are the articles announcing this brave lawsuit aimed at protecting our civil liberties!!!!! The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on April 22, 2016 by Mr. Phillips on behalf of a number of plaintiffs, all of them parents, and all of them courageously standing up to fascist policies aimed at allowing Big Pharm the power to inject whatever they want into any American whenever they want. The lawsuit is pure genius. Mr. Phillips mentions the fact that none of the pharmaceutical companies making and profiting from selling vaccines will or can explain how any vaccine results in immunizing the person injected. In fact, mother’s milk immunizes. That’s proven, but vaccines are not proven to immunize. Genius. Then, there are the religious objectors to vaccines that contain the DNA of fetuses, including a fetus expelled by a psychiatric patient. So, the California legislators and California’s governor, Jerry Brown, decided to reward the ring leader, Dr. Pan, with millions of dollars of licensing fees and discard the rights of every child and parent in California. Can it get any crazier?

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