Multinational drug companies hold Greece hostage by denying shipments of medicine

90% supply reduction; citizens in near-panic

Mike Adams
Natural News
Feb 28, 2013

In a classic example of an anti-free-market collapse, fifty pharmaceutical companies are now halting supplies of drug medicines to the nation of Greece, causing severe shortages of over 200 popular pharmaceutical medicines there. Pfizer, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and many other have all reportedly joined in the partial embargo out of a fear that the low-priced drugs sold to Greece would be intercepted and sold off to buyers in other countries where drug prices are kept artificially high due to Big Pharma’s monopolistic practices.

So instead of lowering the prices of drugs in nearby countries in order to stem the outflow of medicines from Greece, mega drug giants like GSK — a company that has already pleaded guilty to multiple felony crimes in the USA — are reportedly limiting or in some cases halting shipments to Greece, causing a nationwide collapse of chemical medicine.

Pharmacies say supplies have been slashed by 90% across the board, and one pharmacist says, “The government is panic-stricken.” (SOURCE)

Greek medical patients in near-panic

People are standing in line for hours to get prescriptions filled, and when they learn the drugs aren’t available, there is a lot of “screaming and shouting.” Greek citizens are in a state of desperation and anger. “We have reached a tragic point,” says one pharmacist there.

The Greek government, always ready to make things worse in the middle of a crisis, is attempting to solve this monopolistic market problem by criminalizing pharmaceutical exports, thereby blocking the outflow of low-cost drugs from Greece and hopefully ending the near-embargo that has been put in place by multinational drug companies.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Every problem caused by collusion between Big Pharma and big government can apparently be solved by deepening the collusion between Big Pharma and big government, we are led to believe.

Greece is now beholden to the financial interests of drug companies

What’s really bizarre about this whole situation is that all these people desperately standing in line for toxic pharmaceuticals have a massive supply of natural compounds growing in plants all around them — even in their own back yards!

But Greece, like many countries, has long abandoned the idea that herbs and plants might have medicinal properties, thereby binding its fate to the whims of Big Pharma, an industry that consistently and callously places a much higher value on corporate profits than human life.

It’s also quite clear from all this that drug companies can hold nations hostage to their economic demands, charging almost any price they want for their patented chemical cocktails. Any nation that refuses to pay the asking price (or enact monopolistic laws that protect the interests of the drug companies) can and will be punished by withholding medicine from that country.

The true nature of Big Pharma is really on display here for the whole world to see. What we’re learning is that any nation foolish enough to hand over its health system to the for-profit system of chemical medicine should be prepared to be targeted by that very system, held hostage for corporate profits at any cost to society.

This article was posted: Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 5:55 am

Tags: business, economics, financial, money, pharmaceutical

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