Calling this system a global drug cartel is no longer an exaggeration. U.S. pharmaceutical companies are strongly backing this political play by the U.S. President, claiming their sole reason for doing so is to "protect the health of American consumers." Yeah, right. It's more like protecting their distribution lines in the same way a Miami cocaine dealer protects his: by taking out the competition.
The pharmaceutical industry has already proven it will do practically anything to boost profits: distort drug trials, delay the recall of prescription drugs that kill people, hide the results of negative studies, sue online pharmacies to prevent them from selling products to consumers... the list goes on and on. And from it all, an intelligent observer can only conclude one thing:
The U.S. pharmaceutical industry opposes the free market!
A free market is the very last thing they want to see. Instead, they want monopolistic control over all drug supplies and distribution channels. They want to be able to continue to import prescription drug ingredients from Europe for 1/1000th the cost, then turn around and sell drugs to U.S. consumers at markups that exceed 50,000%, 100,000% and even 500,000%! (It's true.) It doesn't sound democratic at all. Sounds like a drug racket to me.
A racket is good for business as long as you're the one running the show. And right now, the drug companies are in charge. With the FDA as Al Capone and the Bush Administration selling out for drug money, they've got the whole system under wraps. So they're pushing it to Australia and other countries, telling them that they can't buy cheaper drugs for their citizens either! How's that for global free trade?
It was never about free trade, folks. It was never about protecting the public. It's always been about three simple things: money, money and money.