Google's CEO Knew About and Allowed Drug Ads

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According to this report, the reason Google settled that drug ad case for $500M is there was evidence that Larry Page not only knew about the ads, he allowed them to continue for years.

Sorting through more than four million documents, prosecutors found internal emails and documents that, they say, show Mr. Page was aware of the allegedly illicit ad sales. Under this week's $500 million settlement, those emails won't be released, avoiding the possibility of disclosure at trial. "Larry Page knew what was going on," Peter Neronha, the Rhode Island U.S. Attorney who led the probe, said in an interview. "We know it from the investigation. We simply know it from the documents we reviewed, witnesses that we interviewed, that Larry Page knew what was going on."
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so a rich and powerful man looked the other way to illegal activities while he got his pockets lined with cash....and has now bought his way out of it...what a shocker....:D
 
The moment the government went to Google and told them 'Hey you know you have ads from Canadian pharmacies advertising medicine at cheaper prices than American pharmacies?' Google yanked the ads. Was it really necessary to fine them the largest amount ever?

Guess Google needs to step up its political contributions - anybody remember when AT&T was caught doing illegal things on a massive scale a few years ago and they actually had a law written that retroactively made them immune from punishment?
 
But it's not FDA approved. But if might be fake. Oh yeah, the terrorists packed it with WMDs. What a load of horse shit, they all are manufactured in the same places, by the same people. Only difference is the various corporate lobbyists and politrickcians didn't get their hands in the till first. While Google's guilty, and I don't agree with the deep pockets getting him out of the pokey, I don't really see that Google did anything wrong, unjust laws are just that.
 
When they say "illegal drugs" it makes it sound like cocaine or LSD ot something. Not pharmaceutical drugs sold cheaper than the stupid prices made for the overpriced US health system. I have no idea why it's illegal. You can buy bread and food from canada, so why not medicine? Isn't the canadian health system a higher standard? Who gives a crap some shitty corporation is missing out of charging people, literally to death.
 
Isn't that just like the government, bust google for allowing prescription advertising.


Meanwhile the DEA makes a deal with the Sinaloa Cartel and he ATF traffics guns to Mexico.
 
DeathPrincess said:
When they say "illegal drugs" it makes it sound like cocaine or LSD ot something. Not pharmaceutical drugs sold cheaper than the stupid prices made for the overpriced US health system. I have no idea why it's illegal. You can buy bread and food from canada, so why not medicine? Isn't the canadian health system a higher standard? Who gives a crap some shitty corporation is missing out of charging people, literally to death.
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You might be close, but I think you have it backwards. The US market subsidizes the cost of pharmaceuticals in other countries. If the artificial market barriers were removed, the drug countries would have to raise the prices in other areas. Certainly there would be plenty of oxen gored, but it might be surprising just which ones they are.
 
DeathPrincess said:
When they say "illegal drugs" it makes it sound like cocaine or LSD ot something. Not pharmaceutical drugs sold cheaper than the stupid prices made for the overpriced US health system. I have no idea why it's illegal. You can buy bread and food from canada, so why not medicine? Isn't the canadian health system a higher standard? Who gives a crap some shitty corporation is missing out of charging people, literally to death.
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They are regulated for safety reasons......OR it's a big joint government/ pharmaceutical company conspiracy to reap billions. Most probably something in the middle of the two.
And no, the Canadian health system is most definitely not a higher standard - it has it's problems too.
 
Was it worse then allowing Evony ads to be plastered everywhere???

I'd link a picture of the Evony ads, but not sure if its against the ToS here........
 
As a Canadian, yeah you are getting burned on drug prices. If you live near the border and want to stop into a pharmacy here go right ahead, our drugs are just as safe as yours. But when it comes to online drug sellers there is a big difference. Canadian drug stores that are buying legitimate drugs from legitimate suppliers (who have followed Canada's drug safety and approval laws which are similar to the FDAs) are not selling online to Americans - they know the deal with FDA regulations and don't have any interest getting into cross border trouble.

The guys promising 'cheap meds' through various online ads and spam emails are technically based in Canada, but are selling 'drugs' (when they aren't just random pills or rat poison) made abroad in some former Soviet state - which is where the guys selling them came from before setting up shop here. They also like to operate from Ontario's cottage country and use our cheap telecommunications infrastructure to make calls to the US for credit card, bank, lottery and other phone scams.
 
Crosshairs said:
so a rich and powerful man looked the other way to illegal activities while he got his pockets lined with cash....and has now bought his way out of it...what a shocker....:D
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Ualdayan said:
The moment the government went to Google and told them 'Hey you know you have ads from Canadian pharmacies advertising medicine at cheaper prices than American pharmacies?' Google yanked the ads. Was it really necessary to fine them the largest amount ever?
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Here's the problem with...everything.
 
DoubleTap said:
You might be close, but I think you have it backwards. The US market subsidizes the cost of pharmaceuticals in other countries. If the artificial market barriers were removed, the drug countries would have to raise the prices in other areas. Certainly there would be plenty of oxen gored, but it might be surprising just which ones they are.
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Quite a few other contries in the world have regulation on how much medicines can cost, which the US lacks. Anyway, look at the cost of getting something done in Japan vs the US, then at the quality of service you'd receive. Both companies make a profit, one just charches over 10x more (hint: it's not the one in Japan).

Monkey34 said:
They are regulated for safety reasons......OR it's a big joint government/ pharmaceutical company conspiracy to reap billions. Most probably something in the middle of the two.
And no, the Canadian health system is most definitely not a higher standard - it has it's problems too.
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Having problems does not mean it's worse. Especially not according to the world health organization. With canada at 30th and the US of A seven places behind at 37th. Behind western europe, behind pretty much any developed country in europe/the middle east and chilie. But the US does rank as the worlds no. 1 on healthcare costs per capita...even ignoring the lower taxes in the US thats a pretty shitty deal, apart from if you're a buisness peddling $1600 blood tests. :p
 
DoubleTap said:
You might be close, but I think you have it backwards. The US market subsidizes the cost of pharmaceuticals in other countries. If the artificial market barriers were removed, the drug countries would have to raise the prices in other areas. Certainly there would be plenty of oxen gored, but it might be surprising just which ones they are.
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But, but, but if we don't subsidize medicine and other products in other countries they might not like us anymore /cry
 
DeathPrincess said:
Quite a few other contries in the world have regulation on how much medicines can cost, which the US lacks. Anyway, look at the cost of getting something done in Japan vs the US, then at the quality of service you'd receive. Both companies make a profit, one just charches over 10x more (hint: it's not the one in Japan).
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This poses an interesting question - should a company be allowed to make a new drug that does something new and incredible and then sell it for whatever they want - say, $5,000 per pill?

Regulating the price of the wonder pill is saying, in a sense, that the existence of that pill creates a harm against people who can't afford it and that the government has a legitimate interest in preventing that harm.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Having problems does not mean it's worse. Especially not according to the world health organization. With canada at 30th and the US of A seven places behind at 37th. Behind western europe, behind pretty much any developed country in europe/the middle east and chilie. But the US does rank as the worlds no. 1 on healthcare costs per capita...even ignoring the lower taxes in the US thats a pretty shitty deal, apart from if you're a buisness peddling $1600 blood tests. :p
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I wasn't inferring that they were horribly worse or something, just that they aren't the standard to model a system by.

DoubleTap said:
This poses an interesting question - should a company be allowed to make a new drug that does something new and incredible and then sell it for whatever they want - say, $5,000 per pill?

Regulating the price of the wonder pill is saying, in a sense, that the existence of that pill creates a harm against people who can't afford it and that the government has a legitimate interest in preventing that harm.
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Well, it's basically true. This isn't like selling the next model of TV. A lack of TV can't kill you (even though some might try to argue that point :) ) A lack of that new wonder drug might.

What really would be interesting is seeing the formula they use to regulate the prices. How much is your life worth?
 
DoubleTap said:
This poses an interesting question - should a company be allowed to make a new drug that does something new and incredible and then sell it for whatever they want - say, $5,000 per pill?

Regulating the price of the wonder pill is saying, in a sense, that the existence of that pill creates a harm against people who can't afford it and that the government has a legitimate interest in preventing that harm.
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But the point is, there is no reason for it to cost $5000 per pill. It's just what the companies have been allowed to charge, so will do. Until they raise it to $15000. If it is a big enough cause it's easy to get funding money (look at cancer) if it's smaller they wont bother as it isn't profitable. So money really isn't an issue with health research. The pills themselves probably cost less than a dollar to make. So why the 5000x markup? It's the same as the police billing you $5000 to enter your home and rescue your family from gunmen.

Some things are so one sided where the sufferer can't bargin, that some contraints on how much bloat can be added to charges needs to be in place. Its immoral otherwise. Especially with ultra expensive magical pills that don't do so much. Could understand a cure for cancer/HIV vaccine being valued at $2000 but not a 1% chance pill selling at $5000 as so often happens.
 
Stop abusing the Canadian system, yanks! Canada actually buys those drugs from the USA and then our taxes subsidize their cost. When you Americans buy drugs from Canada for cheap you are being subsidized at the Canadian tax payers expense

Some of you even come up to Canada and scam us for free medical care because your own government doesn't care if you go bankrupt paying $100.00 for a box of hospital supplied Kleenex.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Especially not according to the world health organization. With canada at 30th and the US of A seven places behind at 37th. Behind western europe, behind pretty much any developed country in europe/the middle east and chilie.
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If you bother to look, the WHO ranks not only on the quality of care, but based on the % of the costs the goverment pays. Obviously, that will skew the results away from a privately funded system.
 
pigster said:
If you bother to look, the WHO ranks not only on the quality of care, but based on the % of the costs the goverment pays. Obviously, that will skew the results away from a privately funded system.
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Several countries above the US have private healthcare systems too. Its nothing to do with that, and everything to do with companies aggresively charging people while giving the minimal cover to barely cover the minimal cover policys set by profit driven insurers. Common sense would say that people trying to get the most money out of you as possible will not exactly be in it for you. :p
 
I wasn't kidding about American hospitals charging patients $100.00 for a box of Kleenex. Only they don't call them Kleenex, the bill will show some vague name like "sanitary wipes". You really should look into the corruption going on in your health system.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Several countries above the US have private healthcare systems too. Its nothing to do with that, and everything to do with companies aggresively charging people while giving the minimal cover to barely cover the minimal cover policys set by profit driven insurers
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Read the report. Health level and financial fairness each account for 25% of the score. If "financial fairness" counts as much as actual health levels, then their index is more a political statement than anything else.
 
The truth lies in the dollars and cents. Currently the US spends more, per capita, than other countries with universal coverage, yet doesn't even have close to universal coverage itself. It was a travesty that during the health care debate that all got caught up in "death panels" and all this other garbage - the fact of the matter is that for nearly what we are currently paying, everyone should be covered.

http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/OECD042111.cfm
 
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