Michael Moore’s upcoming 2007 documentary “Sicko”, aimed at the $1.5 trillion healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, has mobilized many companies within the medical industry to try to discredit both Moore and the film, AdAge.com reports.
"A review of America's health-care system should be balanced, thoughtful and well-researched to pin down what works and what needs to be improved," said Ken Johnson, senior VP for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. "You won't get that from Michael Moore."
Added a spokesman for one of the top 10 pharma companies: "We expect it will be one-sided and biased, just like his other documentaries." Several other pharmaceutical makers did not return calls for comment.
But Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline all advised their employees last year not to speak to Mr. Moore when he began his research for "Sicko." It is not known whether any HMOs or drug companies will appear in the film.
"We were approached, but declined," said a spokeswoman for a second top-10 drugmaker. "Frankly, as much as we felt like we wanted to get our message across, in the end we didn't want to subject ourselves to the editing process."
Insider cant wait to see the movie.
Until then, his advice to anyone suffering under a current healthcare nightmare situation is to "mention Mike and Sicko" ...... and suddenly all your problems will go away!
3 comments:
Boehringer Ingelheim management told us that talking to them would be one of the biggest mistakes of our life. In essence, they threatened job security.
That sounds like all of Big Pharma, not just Boehringer. Thing is, you don't need Moore's new movie to know that Big P are only out for themselves. It shows in the captivity of Medicare Part D, wherein it's WRITTEN POLICY that the US--ALONE AMONG so-called First World countries, CANNOT BARGAIN PRICES WITH BIG P. This shows, and clearly I think, that the blank check that Big P got from our legislature (all of whom WE subsidize medically, after all)--makes 'spin' a silly concept.
Evil is evil; denying people decent and basic medical care sure does qualify as that. Just like, denying them food would also, so qualify. Yet our legislature had no problems doing just that, to the Baby Boomer generation.
Job security? Puh-leeze. Ethically, I'd rather be a janitor in a hospital, than even senior researcher, in a US drug company! These people are so grotesquely arrogant, that the only thing MORE arrogant than they are, is their (IG)Noble Leader, W.
This country needs a BRAND-new direction. In fact, it needs to make an ethical U-Turn, so that America can get back to the business it 'left behind' in the year 2000: that, of being America--the REAL one, and not simply a cloak for corporate-management-driven, rightwing, evangelically derived (Plan B, anyone?) pharmaceutical spinmeisters.
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