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Fighting Big Pharma

While I figure out a heading for this post I'll do a quick update on what's been going on around here. First and foremost the battle with Wyeth is not over, at least from my perspective. We may not win it but we can sure make it uncomfortable for them. I personally am boycotting products that the company makes, more on that later. A price increase of almost 1000 percent is insane.

This has been an interesting week though. Last week I sent an email to a television station's medical reporter who had previously done a story on Premarin and the sudden price hike. I was asked by the reporter to do an interview. I have to say that I thought about it for a while since I'm not terribly good in front of a camera. I get kind of tongue tied actually, I'm better one on one. In any case the camera guy was great and the interview was on the Wednesday night newscast and was rerun again Thursday morning. Here's the link for anyone interested. Halfway down the page on the right side just underneath CTV.ca blogs you will see a video link. That would me me. Avis Favro has also linked my blog to the site and traffic has increased. I have another story to do on Wyeth and Premarin but it requires a little more thought than I'm capable of today.

Now as I've said before, taking Premarin is a personal choice, not for everyone but certainly for me very necessary and not because of something as benign as hot flashes. This week alone I tried two times to do without the pill and both times woke up with a debilitating migraine. I'm not talking about a small headache here, I'm talking about pain so severe that the slightest movement feels like a hammer hitting my head and taking even a sip of water causes gut wrenching dry heaves. It's not fun. Because of the migraine I missed my pre op appointment on Wednesday for my foot surgery. Fortunately for me I was able to get another appointment yesterday. And the beat goes on...

Wyeth Greed Has Struck A Nerve

I guess I'm not alone in noticing the incredible price increase of the drug Premarin. It has been duly noted by a major Canadian television station and the medical reporter Avis Favro on her blog at MedNews Express.

Premarin, has become the third most prescribed drug in the world (just behind Tylenol), bringing its single maker over one billion dollars per year. There is no generic so Wyeth has a monopoly.

A price increase of around ONE THOUSAND PERCENT seems a bit greedy don't you think? I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so but I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg. As most prescriptions are for around 90 days there are still a lot of women who haven't a clue yet. Or maybe those with drug plans won't even notice the price increase. I notice these things since I'm not lucky enough to have a drug plan so when the pharmacist asked for 123 bucks for what I normally paid under thirty for I was freaked out. Watch out when all those bitchy menopausal, hormone deprived women who won't be able to afford this drug any more start protesting. Could be fun....

Now I know there has been controversy around the production of the drug because it uses the urine of pregnant mares. I have done some reading on the subject, the good, the bad and the ugly but I choose (hopefully) to believe the good. Yes, the mares are kept on special farms and yes they are kept pregnant for the benefit of our drugs but is it better or worse than force feeding geese for their livers for fois gras? I think not...

Will we win this battle...probably not. The drug company might cave in and reduce their price somewhat and we will all go away happy and they will still make a shit load of money. If this was a drug to treat men's prostate instead of women I suspect there would be more outrage...

I better go knit a little to calm down...

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals - Price Gouging?

I have been taking Premarin for twenty odd years now for symptoms of menopause. It's a drug that has been in and out of favour at various times during it's long history. I have carefully with my physicians help assessed the risks and benefits. This drug has been around for fifty plus years, it's not new and not a lot of research money needs to be spent.

I refilled my prescription yesterday and was absolutely shocked at my bill. Instead of the 28 bucks I was expecting to pay for 90 pills, my bill was !24.00. Taking away the pharmacy fee this pill has increased in price from 0.14 cents per tablet to a whopping $1.24 a pill.

I called the company this morning and when I asked to speak to someone regarding drug pricing I was asked if it was about Premarin. Seems they have received so many calls they have set up a special line. Did they really think no one would notice or no one would call?

The very nice lady I spoke with gave me the following prepared statement which I'm sure she has memorized by now. There has been an "increase in cost in making the product" and "they had to increase the price in order to keep it on the market since there is now a higher demand".

I'm not surprised that there is a higher demand since there are a lot of women hitting menopause and since the drug is now back on the okay list. I guess Wyeth is taking this opportunity to make a lot of money.

Since I'm not satisfied with the answer I will continue digging, more to come...

Watch What You Eat - How Safe Is Your Food?

I heard today on an American news channel that there is a debate as to whether or not the company responsible for bringing us Salmonella tainted peanut products should or should not go to jail. That shouldn't even be up for discussion. If they knew about the problem and ignored it, yes they should be prosecuted.

They should then consider themselves very lucky that they don't live in China where the recent tainted milk scandal brought death sentences for the unlucky factory executives and serious prison sentences for some workers.

I was lucky, I was away over the holidays and didn't eat any of the products that were hiding in my cupboard and freezer, but as soon as I saw the list I cleared them out. I had some power bars and some ice cream cones that were on the recall list. Salmonella has killed a number of Americans thus far and has sickened thousands.

Here is the FDA list of recalled products.

We're Home

We've left the deep freeze of Calgary behind only to arrive to mountains of snow in our driveway and on the cars with a snow storm heading our way tomorrow.

Initially we were meant to leave yesterday but bad weather in Vancouver delayed our flight. Making a decision that we really didn't want to arrive in Toronto after midnight only to come home to a cold house with no food, WestJet was kind enough to change our flight to this morning without any charges. Aren't they kind...actually I love WestJet. It's a cut rate airline that doesn't feed you but you can buy food on board or bring your own. Drinks are provided any time you want them and they actually do two trolley runs on a 4 hour flight. Maybe Olympic Airlines could learn a thing or two from them.

The flight crew are friendly and helpful and a wheelchair was waiting for me at both ends without even having to ask. Now that's service.

I now have four suitcases of stuff to unpack and put away, groceries to buy, and Steve has to shovel out the cars.

And we miss this little girl terribly...and yes, she's wearing the right shirt.

Okay, okay...we miss her parents too. And now I'm going to sleep for a couple of days.

National Bank Of Greece - Don't Blame The Victim

To say that my irritation levels with the above mentioned bank have reached boiling point is an understatement. If we were there they wouldn't get away with this.

Of course it's all my Mother-in-laws fault, right. Well according to the person who phoned her today, yup, it's her fault. Why, well because the money was actually in U.S. dollars, not Euros and that justifies the horrendous fee of 600 euros for a bank draft. Oh but don't worry he says, I will be so kind as to go one higher up and see what we can do. Steve told his mother today that she was to phone them every two days and not let up and assured here we would not let up from this end. To me that sounds very much like a cop out. Like not taking responsibility for a mistake and blaming the victim.

We still have not had the courtesy of a reply to our two emails and have never received an answer as to why the bank would quiz her repeatedly why she wanted her money. None of their business methinks...

Thanks to this blog I can keep this going until we go back to Greece next year but we really hope that she gets her money back before Christmas. That would really be customer service.

A Little Update - National Bank Of Greece

It's been a little rough around here recently...I have just come out of a 36 hour migraine and I'm still a little foggy. Steve's had his appointment with the ortho guy who is setting up an MRI sometime in the next FEW months, hey this is Canada, land of the wait lists.

For my foot I'm told yes, I need serious surgery but the wait for a foot specialist is one and a half year. It is to cry...

But there is some interesting news regarding my poor Mother-in-law and her dispute with the the National Bank of Greece that I wrote about last week. My sister-in-law went with her to the bank last week to try and get this money back. She wasn't very successful and I think I know why. A good friend in Athens has told me a few times that if you are a woman your chances of being taken seriously are slim.

I don't give up easily so I did a search on the National Bank of Greece and sent an email to their head office last week outlining my dismay at this travesty. My Mother-in-law also doesn't give up, especially when it comes to money. She has worked very hard for it all her life and isn't prepared to kiss 600 euros goodbye. She worked the phones on her end and finally got someone on the phone who was actually in possession of my email. He promised to look into it and see what could be done. I am hoping for a positive outcome.

National Bank Of Greece - Pay Attention

To how not to do business...

My Mother-in-law this week went to the above mentioned bank to withdraw all her money from a savings account. She is in her early eighties and lives on a tight fixed income, so when she found a bank that offers a better rate of interest, decided to move her funds. Pretty standard I would think, shouldn't be too much trouble right?

She was refused, she was told she couldn't do that, so sorry. They also kept questioning her why she wanted to do that, what did she need her money for!!

She went to the new bank and told her tale of woe to the manager who made a couple of phone calls and told her to go back to the National Bank of Greece and all would be well. It was not well. In fact it was pretty awful for her. They gave her a check for her funds but kept 600 euros. Now 600 euros is about a thousand bucks and there is absolutely no reason for them to keep that amount of money or any of her money. People change banks lots of times without that kind of penalty.

Why oh why couldn't she have done this while we were still there. They would have never gotten away with this if Steve was with her.

More Bad Drugs! Cipro On The List

This is starting to get kind of ridiculous isn't it, I mean we take drugs to get better not to give us a whole new problem. This is not the first time I have a bad experience with a drug, last year it was Metoprolol that gave me difficulty.

This time the drug is Ciprofloxacin a very common antibiotic give to treat Urinary Tract Infections. Without getting too personal here suffice it to say I have had to take a fair bit if cipro in the last few months, some of it for preventative rather than for acute treatment. Now in the United States the FDA has warned against the use of this drug, Canada has not followed suit.

A light bulb went off in my head last night when I heard on the news that the drug Cipro has been linked with Tendon damage. In my case it's a foot issue and thumb problem. I broke my foot in April of 2007 during a particularly bad time in my life and didn't deal with it at that time. In time it did heal and arthritis set into the joint. I had a cortisone shot just before going to Greece last year and managed fairly well with it.

About January of this year the foot became incredibly painful for no apparent reason. I hadn't been doing an excessive amount of walking and my Rheumatologist was kind of puzzled. She set up an appointment with a Orthopaedic Surgeon for a consult. This doctor although well known was a disappointment for me since he said he wouldn't operate on my foot until I was "sitting in a wheelchair".

The search was on for another Ortho guy who I saw this past Monday. He was a little friendlier than the last doctor but made it clear that any surgery would only make the problem worse. He also couldn't understand the incredible amount of pain I was suffering. There are days when I can't step down on my foot. This has definitely put my plan to hike Mt. Indefatigable on hold for the moment. In fact, I'm kind of worried about going to Greece this fall.

Is Cipro responsible for my foot pain? When I consider that my use of Cipro started in January, after seeing the news report and doing some more reading it is highly suspect in my mind. Back to the doctor...

More Hazardous Products?

When was the last time you bought a new shower curtain or changed the liner on an existing one? Did you notice the nice smell, you know the bouquet of new plastic? Turns out this is another thing that can be harmful to your health.

Bisphenol A - Back In The News

I've written about this before, first the water bottles and now canned food. Seems my favourite can of tomato sauce has a high rating of BPA.

It is time for all manufacturers to use BPA free cans, it can be done.

Lets Blame The Americans - Again!!!

Why is it that whenever bad stuff happens it's always the Americans fault? Always, no exceptions, they always get the blame, weird that actually...why is the source of the drug, China, not taking some blame?

The drug Heparin is back in the news today and I've been following it since reading the story by the Knitting Nurse last week. This drug is still being used in a number of countries. The raw materials come from China and it is manufactured in the United States and it appears that the ingredients can cause harm. China absolutely denies it is at fault and blames the American manufacturer. The FDA believes that raw materials are contaminated.

The contaminant found in the B. Braun products, oversulphated chondroitin sulphate, has also been found in heparin products in other countries, including the United States and Australia.

As my friend the Knitting Nurse says, get this out there, make people aware that this drug can cause harm.

Drugs Made In China - Heparin Can Kill

This is one of the stories that have appeared in the news but I missed until it was pointed out to me by a blogger friend, The Knitting Nurse , thanks Rudee.

You can read more here, and here. Health Canada has ordered a recall on the drug.

This drug was given to my Mother last spring after she had the pacemaker surgery. Could this have been a contributing factor to her death? Why are pharmaceuticals imported from China? The question of the day...

Throw Away Those Plastic Bottles

Back in December I wrote about the plastic bottles containing bisphenol A and how they were threatening to our health.

Today Health Canada calls bisphenol A a dangerous and is taking steps to possibly ban it.

“Bisphenol A is in every Canadian home. It threatens the health of every Canadian. Moving against it would be a hugely significant victory for public health and the environment,” said Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, a group that has been campaigning for a ban on the chemical from food containers.

Read the whole story and judge for yourself whether or not you want to keep your bottles...

A Dental Horror Story - With A Happy Ending

Steve hates dentists with a capital Hate, but last spring was finally defeated by pain. We had to searched out a new one because our very wonderful dentist got married and moved so far out of town that visiting her new practice became unreasonable. New new Dentist, Dr. A took one look at his tooth and said "root canal" and immediately proceeded to do it. A week later when he went back for the filling Steve complained of some pain in said tooth and was told it would settle down.

A month or so later, the tooth still hadn't settled down and Steve went back. Dr. A suggested a crown and gave him some antibiotic. Two weeks later the crown was put in place and he was sent on his merry way. Fast forward a couple of months and I was in the same dental office for a cleaning and ran into Dr. A who inquired about Steve. I mentioned that the tooth was still sensitive and Steve had absolutely no intention of ever coming back to see him (I knew that). He convinced me to send Steve to see him again and when he finally went Dr. A said, "no no it's not the tooth I fixed that hurts it's the one beside it and it needs a root canal, we'll do it right now". "Hold on a minutes" said Steve, "let me think about it".

Meanwhile I checked with some friends who recommended a new dentist who is known as Dr. G. Dr. G concurred that yes, a root canal was necessary and an appointment was made. This one turned out perfectly and gives Steve no trouble at all. Steve actually raved about Dr. G for days and arrangements were made to have a compete checkup on our return from Greece. The other tooth still hurt from time to time but not enough to warrant another trip to the dentist.

By the time we returned to Canada that tooth was really painful. We made a new appointment with Dr. G and got Steve some antibiotics. Dr. G took x-rays of the tooth and gave Steve the bad news. The tooth had to come out, the root canal was done badly, wasn't filled properly and was not salvageable. That tooth cost $2,400 and had to come out. Dr. G wanted to know who did it and Steve told him. Steve says Dr. G exploded in rage, actually swore and said he was the second person he had seen recently whose tooth had been ruined by Dr. A. "Leave it with me" he said, and just before Christmas he phoned and told Steve he would be getting an implant free of charge, compliments of Dr. A.

It would have been practically impossible to sue Dr. A for his mistake, all he would say is I did my best. Kind of hard to prove that he's incompetent so if it hadn't been for the diligence of Dr. G it would have cost Steve another $3,500 for an implant. There are some good people out there and Dr. G qualifies...tomorrow he gets to yank that tooth out.

Going Green - Not Working So Well

A few months ago I decided that we would no longer buy water in small individual bottles. I never did like the idea of so much plastic heading for landfill but they were very handy. I need a large glass of water by my bedside at night and after knocking a few glasses over in my sleep it was becoming dangerous. Not only did I soak everything that happened to be lying on the floor like my books, slippers etc. but broken glass on the floor in the middle of the night is not so cool.

So I bought the bottles below. Today they are going in the recycling bin.

In case you are wondering why I would toss these out, read this article on Bisphenol-A, a chemical used to harden plastic.

The plastics industry says it is harmless, but a growing number of scientists are concluding, from some animal tests, that exposure to BPA in the womb raises the risk of certain cancers, hampers fertility and could contribute to childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity.

Now I'm not pregnant nor am I worried about fertility at this stage in my life, but these are the ones they know about. What about what they don't know yet about this stuff. Do I really want to take that chance? Methinks not.

Today, Mountain Co-op stores pulled all their plastic bottles off the shelves. I think this is a great idea until more research is done. I suppose my next shopping trip will be for a stainless steel water bottle. At least when that sucker hits the ground it won't break, it'll just scare the heck out of my sweetie. I'm tough to live with, back to my knitting...

Chrysler - A Sucess Story

I met with the Service Manager of the Dealership this morning. He did keep me waiting a few minutes, which was not unexpected on my part. Seems to be standard operating procedure.

We sat down and he asked who wanted to go first. I told him to go ahead and address my concerns regarding the sealer that was used. I let him talk for half an hour or so and finally just asked what he was prepared to offer.

He offered to do the compressor job for half price, $450. I agreed and I think it's the best I could do... Ask and you shall receive, of course I had the paperwork to back me up. After that I spent the rest of the day in ER dealing with heart palpitations and other shit.

Chrysler - Don't Mess With Me-Update 1

I drive a van, I know, I know, not very friendly toward the environment, but I bought it when my Mom was still alive and we needed to transport walkers and various other things when we travelled. Now of course, I wish I didn't have it but I'm stuck with it for a while longer.

Last week the air conditioning died a slow death and I took it to the dealer. Now even though this van is on the older side, it only has 95,000 KM on the odometer and you would think that air conditioning should last a little longer, right? Well turns out that during a certain period in the late 90's, Chrysler had a problem in that regard. In fact when I took this van to my regular mechanic he did tell me that the air would die at around 100 K. Guess he was right.

Only thing is, it actually has been a problem from about 65,000KM and I had complained about it and it had a previous repair done. I bought it (second hand) from a authorized Chrysler dealer and during one of the times it needed repair, they pumped in something called "Sealer" without my authorization. The job of this sealer is to go through the system and plug little leaks. I know from previous experience that this stuff doesn't work and clogs up the entire system. So fair warning to anyone out there who wants to use it, it doesn't work long term. It's a down and dirty, cheap way to fix the air on car that you don't intend to keep for long.

When I got my bill for this "cheap" repair it was over 500 bucks so I hadn't a clue what was done. At least not until this past week when I realized to my horror that I now have to replace my entire air system, front to back, at a hit of over $2000. When I questioned the Assistant Service Manager she insisted that she had told me and after much discussion conceded there might have been a "misunderstanding". Nope sorry, I understand things quite well and I wasn't told. In fact because the repair was over 500 bucks and the bill just said "sealer kit" I assumed it was things like seals, gaskets, you know that kind of stuff. I saw no reason to think blow in sealer was used knowing that that wouldn't have cost more than 125 bucks tops. I assumed that a leak had been found an fixed. Never, ever assume...

Expensive lesson, yup...don't trust anyone, read your bills, question every single thing when you take your car for repair. See, now they want to replace the compressor to the tune of 900 bucks but my mechanic, well he says, don't waste your money it won't last. That sealer will get into the new compressor and kill it.

But I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I have sent an email to the Service Manager and if I don't get a timely response, I'll try the owner of this particular Chrysler dealership. If that doesn't work, well, there's always small claims court. I am not letting this go, there are principals if not money at stake.

My own mechanic, sweetie that he is, has offered to let me come to his shop and copy all his research on the sealer in question so I have more ammunition against the dealer. I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. Meanwhile, I await a reply to an email I sent to the Service Manager. Let's see how long that takes and what the response will be...


Just to update the above post, the Service Manager of the dealership has finally contacted me but not until I followed up the email with a fax. Judging by my telephone conversation with him, I know he's going to try to browbeat me tomorrow when we meet. He actually raised his voice to me on the phone and that doesn't bode well. I'll keep you informed.