Big Pharma conspiracy theory
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According to the Big Pharma conspiracy theory, the medical establishment in general and pharmaceutical companies in particular operate for sinister purposes and against the public good.
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History and definition
The term Big Pharma is used to refer collectively to the global pharmaceutical industry. According to Steve Novella the term has come to connote a demonized form of the pharmaceutical industry. Professor of writing Robert Blaskiewicz has written that conspiracy theorists use the term Big Pharma as "shorthand for an abstract entity Template:Sic corporations, regulators, NGOs, politicians, and often physicians, all with a finger in the trillion-dollar prescription pharmaceutical pie".
According to Blaskiewicz, the Big Pharma conspiracy theory has four classic traits: first, the assumption that the conspiracy is perpetrated by a small malevolent cadre; secondly, belief that the public at large is ignorant of the truth; thirdly, that its believers treat lack of evidence as evidence; and finally, that the arguments deployed in support of the theory are irrational, misconceived or otherwise mistaken.
Manifestations
The conspiracy theory has a variety of different specific manifestations. Each has different narratives, but they always cast "Big Pharma" as the villain of the piece.
Alternative treatments
In Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About, Kevin Trudeau proposes that there are all-natural cures for serious illnesses including cancer, herpes, arthritis, AIDS, acid reflux disease, various phobias, depression, obesity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, attention deficit disorder, muscular dystrophy, and that these are all being deliberately hidden and suppressed from the public by the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the major food and drug companies.
HIV/AIDS
In a 2006 column for Harpers magazine, journalist Celia Farber claimed that the antiretroval drug nevirapine was part of a conspiracy by the "scientific-medical complex" to spread toxic drugs. Farber said that AIDS is not caused by HIV and that nevirapine had been unethically administered to pregnant women in clinical trials, leading to a fatality. Farber's theories and claims were refuted by scientists, but, according to Seth Kalichman, the resulting publicity represented a breakthrough moment for AIDS denialism.
Medical marijuana
The Big Pharma conspiracy theory is markedly different in Big Pharma vs medical marijuana, as the pharmaceutical industry has been relatively open about their stance. Due to the pharmaceutical industry's concerns of medical marijuana adversely impacting sales of prescription drugs, the industry (with help from the alcohol industry) has openly lobbied and campaigned extensively against the decriminalization and legalization of medical marijuana, including companies such as Insys Therapeutics Inc. (a manufacturer of the highly-addictive painkiller fentanyl) which spent $500,000 for advertising against Proposition 205. Insys directly admitted in an investor filing that marijuana legalization could "significantly limit (our) commercial success".
Reception
Steven Novella writes that while the pharmaceutical industry has a number of aspects which justly deserve criticism, the "demonization" of it is both cynical and intellectually lazy. Novella considers that overblown attacks on Big Pharma actually let the pharmaceutical industry "off the hook" since they distract from and tarnish more considered criticisms.
See also
- List of conspiracy theories
- List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
- Bad Pharma
- Big Pharma, a 2006 book by British journalist Jacky Law
- Sicko
- Vaccine controversies
- Homeopathy
