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Profits over safety

As our firm got into pharmaceutical litigation cases, we started to realize what the structure was within the pharmaceutical industry. It became no mystery where they put their time and effort: marketing and sales far outweighs the attention placed within the company——from money, to personnel and investment. There is one medical affairs advisor in most of these companies yet there are hundreds of marketers. That tells you something about where their priorities are, and whether they prioritize sales and profit over consumer safety. Ibuprofen, which is the active ingredient in Motrin, is not as safe as acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. Ironically, McNeil owns both Children’s Tylenol and Children’s Motrin, but it was not always that way. Before they owned Children’s Motrin, they were writing to the FDA that Motrin, then owned by another company, should not be allowed to be sold over the counter and should not be marketed to the general public without serious and specific warnings. Lo and behold, after McNeil bought Motrin and marketed it to the public, they abandoned all the points they had brought up to the FDA about the need for warnings and that it could be unsafe to sell Motrin over the counter.

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