“Google has agreed to pay $500 million to settle a criminal probe into ads it accepted for online Canadian pharmacies selling drugs in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. The advertisements led to illegal imports of prescription drugs into the country, the Justice Department said.” Good. Companies should be held accountable for their evil behaviour.
U.S. citizens getting cheaper drugs from Canada – yeah that sounds real evil. What a crock!
We pay for the damn thing with our taxes. The less we lose that way the better.
(USA) Get a proper universal healthcare system and you will get that kind of pricing. It pay for itself by reducing crime, bankruptcy and long term side effect of not treating something because it is too expensive (and save life too).
Edited 2011-08-24 22:27 UTC
Yes but they’re common sense ideas that have no place in the US – when people in the US on mass get behind Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum then switch on to hear Rush Limbaugh, O’Reilly and Hannity are you surprised the country is in its sorry state?
Thom wrote this, he’s a Dutch socialist.
Selling non-government approved medication now lands you in jail. Progress! Change we can believe in!
Actually selling government unapproved medication is indirect murder and is banned in the “land of the free” and all other very much anti-socialist countries…
Free countries — which pretty much means they are not Socialist, given that Socialism puts the group above the individual — do not prohibit such sales.
Such sales are not murder, either direct or indirect, assuming that the seller informs the buyer of the nature of the product. Government approval does not make a medication safe, nor disapproval unsafe.
I’m curious : what brings you to a technology website if all you want to talk about is the free market as a universal solution to all regulation problems and how awesome it is in theory ?
Since your “do we really need regulation” post in June, you have brutally stopped posting about anything else. Like your account was hacked or something.
Edited 2011-08-25 07:42 UTC
Internet pharmacies are pretty sleazy. They are a
major supporter of e-mail spam, for one thing. They
also pay doctors to sign prescriptions without ever
seeing the patients. They operate close to the limits
of the law, and often cross over that line.
500 million? wow.
The US pharmacy lobby is extremely powerful.
Medicare consumes about 15.3% of the USA’s whole gross domestic product and is projected for 20% in a few years time. The general IT Company stuff here just pale in comparison. Their lobby is so powerful that a previous president almost seriously though about increasing patent periods on their demand. (I can^aEURTMt cite it)
The richest country in the world yet majority of people can^aEURTMt even afford dental care anymore.
(watched Jerry Springer lately)
It just does not seem right.
They are just not going to stand for cheaper medicine.
Being healthy is not supposed to ruin you.
Now the pharmaceutical industry is trying to get around some patent legislation by introducing “Biologics”.
Extremely expensive medicines for which generics never will exists.
http://knol.google.com/k/billion-dollar-biologic-medicines-of-2007
Monthly treatment with this cost around $1500 for some serious illnesses like ankylosing spondalytis.
And worse of all patent periods does not apply to them.
Some loophole exist here that is bleeding patients dry but goverments jus’t dont care.
It makes me sick…i think i need a doctor.
Indeed… I’ve read way too many articles about the abuses of the pharmaceutical industry and FDA.
Looks like Techdirt has covered this move with their usual stance, most of which I agree with at this point:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110824/14531015667/justice-depar…
Yeah, shame on Google for importing illegal Drugs…
P.S.
Do you really have to insert your opinion in every news item you post?
Edited 2011-08-25 16:50 UTC
If there’s one place where something like GPL is needed, it’s in the field of medicine.
Those in need of medications are ill; this is not an issue of luxury spending. To criticize those of us seeking medications is to forget that the high cost of medications in this country is paid for by doing without food or other necessities. And to penalize Google for making information available about sources on their website is the real crime.
Canadian drugs are cheaper for a number of reasons. One is the kindly Maple Leaf taxpayers are paying part of the cost. Part of it is counterfeit operations selling faux and out of date drugs. How would you feeling seeing Saint Peter because you were too stupid or ignorant to buy drugs protected and approved. After all, both a socialist and a libertarian should help keep the US medial care the best in the world.