The pharmaceutical cartel
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Pharmaceutical Cartel - How We Are Cheated As Patients |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 45 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Christian Esser , Astrid Randerath |
| script | Christian Esser, Astrid Randerath |
| production | ZDF , Frontal21 |
| camera | Christian Esser, Astrid Randerath |
| occupation | |
| |
The Pharmakartell (original title: Das Pharmakartell - How we are betrayed as patients ) is a multiple award-winning documentary from 2008 by Christian Esser and Astrid Randerath . The film sheds light on the products and business practices of the pharmaceutical industry based on numerous interviews and investigative research conducted with those affected, such as insiders from anti-corruption authorities, the pharmaceutical industry and medicine .
Movie content
The authors Christian Esser and Astrid Randerath show the interior of the "pharmaceutical cartel":
Due to the suicide of the wife of the widower Lothar Schröder , who had previously read positive product descriptions of an antidepressant in pharmacies and then had the preparation prescribed, the authors set up a front company. They rent office space, have a glossy brochure printed and invite representatives of various - even apparently serious - magazines (including the Apotheken-Umschau) to research whether they would report positive, unchecked, on possibly high-risk preparations. With success. Esser and Randerath show the recordings to Jörg Schaaber (editor “Gute Pillen - Bad Pillen”) and Stefan Etgeton ( Federation of German Consumer Organizations). Both are upset. The recordings with the employee of a self-help organization ( ADHD Germany ) are also shot with a hidden camera , because a red-hand letter with reference to suicides as a side effect was not published on their website .
The authors trace the antidepressant used by Lothar Schröder's wife and other preparations of the same type of action as far as the USA , where, among other things, an affected person and his lawyer have their say. Original footage from the US FDA supplements this part of the documentation. Those affected as well as insiders from anti-corruption authorities, the pharmaceutical industry, medicine and even politics are now being asked about this. They report openly about how and with which - e.g. Sometimes brutal - methods that corporations push drugs onto the market, the active ingredients of which are often heavy and z. T. have severe side effects. They reveal how pharmaceutical companies bribe doctors and officials, threaten independent experts, court and influence politicians, buy media and infiltrate self-help groups. An interview with Horst Seehofer about the failed project of a positive list for pharmaceuticals , a report on revolving door effects between politics and the pharmaceutical industry as well as the start of a joint boat trip over a leisurely meal between the two sides complete the documentation.
“Every tablet is less about health and more about business. In the “Frontal 21” documentary “The Pharmaceutical Cartel - How We Are Cheated as Patients”, former managers and employees of the pharmaceutical industry speak openly for the first time about the brutal methods that corporations have been using for years to put drugs on the market whose active ingredients have serious side effects. " (Text: ZDF)
First broadcast and broadcast dates
The film was first broadcast on December 9, 2008 from 9:00 pm to 9:45 pm on ZDF.
Interview partner
- Horst Seehofer (politician, CSU)
- Bruno Müller-Oerlinghausen (Medicines Commission German Medical Association)
- Uwe Dolata (Chief Detective Officer , BDK )
- Peter Schönhöfer (medicine telegram)
- Leonhard Hansen , (then head of the North Rhine Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVN))
- John Virapen , (long-time managing director Eli Lilly Sweden)
- Wolf-Dieter Ludwig (then Chairman of the Drugs Commission of the German Medical Association)
- Lothar Schröder (widower)
- Marc Rimbert (Relative, New Mexico, USA)
- Fred Shepherd (Attorney, USA)
- Edda Würdemann (Center for Social Policy, Bremen)
- Klaus Skrotzki, (pediatrician)
- Jörg Schaaber (Editor "Good Pills - Bad Pills")
- Stefan Etgeton ( Federal Association of Consumers )
Other interviewees, whose names are not mentioned, have their say during the shoot with a hidden camera. The recordings are re- spoken in the original sound .
Quotes
“It cannot be the case that a positive list is ordered according to who has the strongest lobby. It has to be done according to scientifically sound criteria. And that wasn't possible in the foreseeable future, and that's why we buried her. By the way, every subsequent government too. [Question from the editor:] "Does that mean that the lobby was so strong, the pharmaceutical lobby against politics, and then they had to withdraw?" Seehofer: Yes, that is the case. For 30 years. Until the hour. "
“The self-help groups were discovered by the pharmaceutical industry in the mid-1980s as marketing agents. When funded, they give back to the financiers for promoting their products. And in this way self-help has been corrupted by the pharmaceutical industry. Not all, but many self-help groups are no better than an extended arm of the pharmaceutical industry "
“Lilly [note: the Eli Lilly group ] has ensured that, on the one hand, risk data, for example on the generation of suicidality, or aggressive states and so on, are not made public. She massively threatened colleagues who had such data, threatened legal consequences, and of course - like other manufacturers - she made sure that studies that were not, or the results of which were not in their interest, were not published at all. "
"The misconception that still prevails among the general public:" A drug that is approved is safe "is clearly not correct."
"We are even dealing with structures here from which the Mafia could still learn something."
“The pharmaceutical industry can look forward to the investigative authorities, the police, the public prosecutor's offices and the courts in a relaxed manner, because there has not yet been a conviction in Germany that can be traced back to bribery in business dealings, to corruption by the pharmaceutical industry, which could act as a deterrent. So the pharmaceutical industry can do what it wants in Germany! "
"If you look at the methods that the pharmaceutical industry uses to put the decision-makers under pressure, they actually belong in the mafia-like structures."
“There is a give and take, a come and go between politicians and ministerial officials and pharmaceutical industry representatives. And it simply cannot be because in a family, if you make it a Cosa Nostra, your own thing, then of course the corresponding controls are eliminated! "
Reviews
“The Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Förderpreis [Note: of the year 2009] goes to Astrid Randerath and Christian Esser, the authors of the ZDF television documentary 'Das Pharmakartell' (broadcast date December 9, 2009). The jury considers the Frontal 21 documentary to be an outstanding example of investigative journalism. "
Awards
- 2009: “Best Business Journalists of 2009” . In a survey by the journal Wirtschaftsjournalist among 276 specialist journalists and editors-in-chief, Christian Esser and Astrid Randerath were recognized as the best business journalists of 2009 in the TV / Radio category for the ZDF documentary Das Pharma-Kartell .
- 2009: Hanns Joachim Friedrichs Prize for “The Pharmaceutical Cartel”. The Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Förderpreis went to the authors Astrid Randerath and Christian Esser , the actual Hanns-Joachim-Friedrichs-Prize went to the editor-in-chief of ZDF, Nikolaus Brender .
See also
- Pharmaceutical company: criticism
- List of pharmacy scandals
- Examples of market withdrawals due to adverse drug reactions
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leonhard Hansen on Arztwiki.de ( memento of the original from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Drugs Commission of the German Medical Association - Scientific Committee of the German Medical Association, short biography: Prof. Dr. med. Wolf-Dieter Ludwig , accessed on February 17, 2015
- ↑ gutepillen-schlechtepillen.de, Die Macher: Jörg Schaaber , accessed on February 20, 2015
- ↑ gutepillen-schlechtepillen.de, Die Macher: Jörg Schaaber , accessed on February 20, 2015
- ↑ Leonhard Hansen on Arztwiki.de ( memento of the original from February 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Drugs Commission of the German Medical Association - Scientific Committee of the German Medical Association, short biography: Prof. Dr. med. Wolf-Dieter Ludwig , accessed on February 17, 2015
- ↑ gutepillen-schlechtepillen.de, Die Macher: Jörg Schaaber , accessed on February 20, 2015
- ↑ Prize winners 2009: Nikolaus Brender, Astrid Randerath and Christian Esser , hanns-joachim-friedrichs.de, accessed on February 17, 2015
- ↑ "Pharmaceutical cartel authors awarded" www.zdf.de, ( deleted according to 12th RStV )
- ↑ http://www.presseportal.de/pm/7840/1611504/zdf-frontal-21-redakteure-astrid-randerath-und-christian-esser-beste-wirtschaftsjournalisten-2009 ZDF- "Frontal 21" editors Astrid Randerath and Christian Esser best business journalists 2009 Presseportal, presseportal.de, May 10, 2010, accessed on February 17, 2015
- ↑ Prize winners 2009: Nikolaus Brender, Astrid Randerath and Christian Esser , hanns-joachim-friedrichs.de, accessed on February 17, 2015 (note: ZDF reports at http://www.zdf-jahrbuch.de/2009/dokumentation/ tv-prices-awards.php wrong: Ezer)
