Wishful Thinking

The consumer public buys GlaxoSmithKline medications based on the following assumptions:

  • GlaxoSmithKline faithfully discloses, up front, all known risks associated with its medicines to industry regulators and, by extension, the public.

  • GlaxoSmithKline never fakes or alters the results of clinical drug trials in order to gain approval for a new medicine.

  • As a matter of principle, GlaxoSmithKline always put the public’s health and well being above any motive for profit.

  • GlaxoSmithKline would never try to inappropriately or illegally influence a doctor in order to get him or her to prescribe one of its drugs.

  • The United States Food And Drug Administration’s commitment to the public is not compromised or influenced by its funding, or association, with GlaxoSmithKline.

  • Any new GlaxoSmithKline medicine approved by the FDA has been shown to be at least as effective as other similar drugs already on the market.

  • GlaxoSmithKline drugs approved by the FDA are proven significantly more effective than placebo (sugar pill.)

  • If a GlaxoSmithKline drug is FDA approved it automatically means it is “ safe and effective.”

  • The FDA has a science-based monitoring system that detects previously unknown side effects of GlaxoSmithKline drugs, and as a result the agency is in a position to move aggressively and in a timely manner to make sure additional and appropriate drug warnings are issued as necessary.

  • New GlaxoSmithKline drugs are, in general, safer and more effective than older ones.

  • Natural remedies such as herbs (ex: St. John’s wort) cannot be as effective as GlaxoSmithKline prescription drugs.

  • In general, if a doctor prescribes a GlaxoSmithKline drug it must be safe to take.

  • A doctor is a medical and drug information expert who prescribes GlaxoSmithKline medicines based on his or her own in depth research.

  • A doctor would never rely primarily on information provided by a GlaxoSmithKline drug sales representative (a person who typically has no formal medical background) to make a prescribing decision.

  • If a doctor prescribes a GlaxoSmithKline drug then a patient can assume it is the best choice among many.

  • If a doctor prescribes a GlaxoSmithKline drug then a patient must really need it.

  • If a doctor tells a patient it is safe to take a GlaxoSmithKline drug for years on end — then it is — even if there are no long-term studies to support that assertion.

  • A doctor’s assessment of a patient’s condition, medical or otherwise, and the best course of treatment if a GlaxoSmithKline drug is chosen is always evidence-based and not opinion.

  • If a GlaxoSmithKline drug has serious side effects the chances of anything bad happening to me are slim to none.

    • All of the above assumptions
    are seriously flawed, or simply mistaken.