[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: Giving Them a Sick Feeling

Sat Dec 25 23:22:41 PST 2004

>
>
>Los Angeles Times
>December 22, 2004
>
>Giving them a sick feeling
>
>Drug firms are on the defense as filmmaker
>Michael Moore plans to dissect their industry.
>
>By Elaine Dutka Times Staff Writer
>
>America's pharmaceutical industry is putting out an
>advisory about the latest potential threat to its
>health: Michael Moore.
>
>Moore, the filmmaker whose targets have included
>General Motors ("Roger & Me"), the gun lobby (the
>Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine") and President
>Bush ("Fahrenheit 9/11") has now set his sights on the
>healthcare industry, including insurance companies,
>HMOs, the Food and Drug Administration - and drug
>companies.
>
>At least six of the nation's largest firms have already
>issued internal notices to their workforces, preparing
>them for potential ambushes.
>
>"We ran a story in our online newspaper saying Moore is
>embarking on a documentary - and if you see a scruffy
>guy in a baseball cap, you'll know who it is," said
>Stephen Lederer, a spokesman for Pfizer Global Research
>and Development.
>
>In September and October, GlaxoSmithKline, the second-
>largest in retail sales, as well as AstraZeneca and
>Wyeth, sent out Moore alerts, instructing employees
>that questions posed by the media or filmmakers should
>be handled by corporate communications. Heavyweights
>Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis Pharmaceuticals each sent
>out similar memos before their recent merger. Merck &
>Co., Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Co., Bristol-
>Myers Squibb, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Teva
>Pharmaceutical Industries send periodic messages about
>dealing with the press but haven't singled out Moore by
>name. Johnson & Johnson declined to comment.
>
>Moore's project is only the latest bit of bad news for
>the embattled industry. Popular - and lucrative - drugs
>such as Vioxx, Celebrex and Aleve have been linked to
>cardiovascular problems, and the possibility of
>lawsuits is looming. Canada is undercutting U.S. drug
>prices, and health budgets are being slashed. And then
>there's increased scrutiny by the FDA, whose oversight
>of the drug industry and its relationship to it is
>raising many questions.
>
>"We have an image problem - not only with Michael
>Moore, but with the general public," said M.J.
>Fingland, senior director of communications for the
>Washington, D.C.-based Pharmaceutical Research and
>Manufacturers of America. "We're criticized on the Hill
>and in the press - put in the category of the tobacco
>industry, even though we save lives."
>
>The industry, Fingland said, has made great strides in
>the last three years - ever since a new ethics policy
>was implemented in 2001. Drawn up with the help of the
>American Medical Assn. and other medical specialty
>groups, it restricted the types of gifts given to
>doctors, for example, setting a $100 ceiling on each.
>Although pharmaceutical companies can still sponsor
>meetings, they no longer have free rein to treat
>doctors to five-star dinners or pick up their hotel
>tabs.
>
>"Giveaways, lavish trips are a thing of the past,"
>Fingland said. "We've cleaned up the business
>considerably."
>
>Despite the improvement, pharmaceutical executives are
>bracing for the worst.
>
>"Moore's past work has been marked by negativity, so we
>can only assume it won't be a fair and balanced
>portrayal," said Rachel Bloom, executive director of
>corporate communications for the Wilmington, Del.-based
>AstraZeneca. "His movies resemble docudramas more than
>documentaries."
>
>Rumors are already flying within the industry about
>Moore's moviemaking tactics. Moore, it is said, has
>hired actors to portray pharmaceutical salesmen who
>offer gifts to doctors who promote their products.
>There's also word that he's offered physicians $50,000
>apiece to install secret cameras in their offices in an
>effort to document alleged corruption.
>
>In September, employees said that Moore was shoving a
>microphone at people at GlaxoSmithKline, Bloom notes,
>even though he was in town only for a radio appearance.
>
>"We have six business centers nationwide, all of which
>report 'sightings,' " Bloom said. "Michael Moore is
>becoming an urban legend."
>
>Tentatively titled "Sicko," Moore's film will probably
>be released in the first half of 2006, sometime between
>the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. No deal has yet
>been reached, but an announcement is expected after the
>new year. There's interest in the industry, he says, on
>the part of some of the major studios and not just
>their specialty divisions.
>
>Reached at his home in Michigan, the director declined
>to say whether he's hired actors to portray
>pharmaceutical salesmen and denied paying doctors to
>help him install secret cameras. ("I didn't need to. So
>many doctors have offered to help, for free, in an
>effort to expose the system.") He does admit to hanging
>around hospitals, insurance companies and
>pharmaceutical companies, including two that have not
>issued internal alerts.
>
>It's getting harder and harder to find corporate
>executives, however, who are willing to sit down for
>interviews, Moore said.
>
>Moore decided to make a film about healthcare because
>it's "a hot-button issue with the average American -
>the domestic issue of the day," he said. "Being screwed
>by your HMO and ill-served by pharmaceutical companies
>is the shared American experience. The system, inferior
>to that of much poorer nations, benefits the few at the
>expense of the many."
>
>Tackling the health industry first occurred to the
>documentarian after he shot a segment for his now-
>defunct TV show, "The Awful Truth," about a man
>fighting his insurance company to pay for a kidney and
>pancreas transplant. He said the viewer response was
>enormous - as was audience reaction to a derogatory
>line about HMOs in the Jack Nicholson-Helen Hunt movie,
>"As Good As It Gets." There was a raw nerve, he
>ultimately decided, that wasn't being addressed.
>
>Last summer, the Endeavor agency, which represents
>Moore, tested the Hollywood waters - sending out a six-
>page outline of "Sicko" to a host of independent
>producers, independent film companies and the major
>studios. The movie, according to the treatment, would
>end with Moore sailing to Cuba with ailing Americans to
>take advantage of that country's free healthcare. That,
>he says, was only a joke made on a late-night talk
>show.
>
>According to the summary, human interest stories about
>victims of the system will be interspersed with
>interviews. He will dig up conflict-of-interest
>concerns aimed at members of Congress overseeing
>Medicare and will look at politicians who accept
>campaign contributions from a host of insurance
>companies, as well as concerns about the "merger mania"
>in the healthcare industry.
>
>Nancy Pekarek, vice president of corporate media
>relations for British firm GlaxoSmithKline, said
>employees are uneasy about an assault.
>
>"We've been getting voicemail messages," she said.
>"This is their career, after all, and it's no fun to be
>targeted. The problem is that Moore's film [isn't
>likely to] reflect the stringent standards of today."
>
>The movie, Moore said, is only in its early stages "and
>already people are freaky-deaky."
>
>While "Sicko" is coming to life, "Fahrenheit" hasn't
>been laid to rest. Beginning on Inauguration Day, Moore
>will be documenting the activities of the Bush
>administration for "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2 ."
>
>"The word is out to whistle-blowers, in networks and
>corporations, that Bush has his sequel - a second
>term," Moore said. "And one bad sequel deserves a good
>one. What form it takes depends on the 'improvisation'
>of my lead actor. I'm more than happy to share
>residuals with him if he'd sit down with me for 10
>minutes."
>
>Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
>
>http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-et-sicko22dec22,0,6802866.story
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand