Scott Hensley

 Scott Hensley

"This end run around the high prices of [prescribed] drugs in the United States is costing the drug companies significant profits- about $350 million to $650 million worth of drugs are purchased by Americans at the lower Canadian prices each year. PhRMA wanted to curb this trend..."- (Overdo$ed America page 160)

Scott Hensley wrote about how PhRMA had contracted a P.R. firm in order to spin a false story that Canadian pharmacies may have distributed counterfeit prescribed medications in 2003. This was obviously a lie and was to prevent senior citizens living in northern states of the United States from going to Canada or ordering prescribed medications at a cheaper price. The P.R. firm created a focus group to determine what factors would lead senior citizens to stop buying prescribed medications from Canada. 

The P.R. firm described that safety and effectiveness were reasons that could prevent senior citizens from buying prescribed medications from Canada. An article in the Wall Street Journal described that the FDA had noted that there was counterfeit prescribed medications being obtained from Canadian online vendors and the report was in the news. A spokesperson from Health Canada described that there were no counterfeit prescribed drugs being sent from Canada to the United States. 

"Appearing on the same page of the Wall Street Journal, but with a much smaller headline, was an article that explained the real story behind the story. 'Drug Companies Cry 'Danger' Over Imports,' by Scott Hensley, reported that PhRMA had hired a public relations firm, Edelman, to help it develop an effective 'communications campaign' to stop [prescription] drug importation.'"- (page 160)

Scott Hensley, a journalist, wrote about how the P.R. firm from PhRMA had spun the story of counterfeit prescribed drug medications to prevent senior citizens from saving money on prescribed medications in Canada. While the bigger headline in the September 22, 2003 edition of the Wall Street Journal read that there were counterfeits being imported from online vendors from Canada to the United States, a smaller headline read that "Drug Companies Cry 'Danger' Over Imports". The smaller headline spoke the truth and described that PhRMA attempted to prevent senior citizens from going to Canada or from ordering cheaper prescribed medication from Canada's online pharmacy vendors.

This describes the incongruencies of the pharmaceutical companies that have attempted to prevent researchers and doctors from negatively reviewing newer medications that may have side effects seen in the stories of Dr. Gueriguian and Dr. Fletcher. Dr. Applegate denied receiving bribes and withdrew from the review board along with his colleagues. Dr. Applegate was bribed with a consulting position, $30,000 per year, and two grants and still withdrew from the research study. We learn that pharmaceutical companies still were attempting to prevent citizens from saving money and buying cheaper prescribed medications in Canada. This describes the need to keep integrity and speak truth despite the temptations. We learn that there are people who have decided to speak truth rather than temporary lies.