You may remember this story in November of last year. In the 60 Minutes interview Below, Cheryl Eckard reveals disturbing details about the gross negligence at the Cidra pharmaceutical plant, run by one of GlaxoSmithKline’s subsidiaries.

They eventually pleaded guilty to the felony crime of distributing adulterated drugs. Unfortunately one has to wonder why not one single person in charge of these outrageous, in some cases life threatening, practices went to jail!

There was reason to believe that some of the medications were contaminated with bacteria, others were mislabeled, and some were too strong or not strong enough. It’s likely Glaxo would have gotten away with it had it not been for a company insider: a tip from Cheryl Eckard set off a major federal investigation.

Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has updated the package insert for its restless legs syndrome drug Requip. According to the new insert, Requip may cause ?pathological gambling? and ?increased libido including hypersexuality.?

These side effects are reportedly a class-wide effect, which impact all the drugs belonging to the non-ergoline dopamine agonist class of drugs. The insert reads:
?Impulse control symptoms, including compulsive behaviors such as pathological gambling and hypersexuality, have been reported in patients treated with dopaminergic agents.?

Another RLS drug, Mirapex (which is also used to treat Parkinson?s disease), has reported similar symptoms. The Mirapex package insert reads:
?Patients taking certain medicines to treat Parkinson?s disease or RLS, including Mirapex . . . have reported problems with gambling, compulsive eating, and increased sex drive.?

A 2005 study published in the Archives of Neurology also found that dozens of patients using Mirapex or similar drugs developed serious gambling addictions.

Hundreds of people have reportedly contacted lawyers about joining class-action lawsuits that allege Mirapex and Requip caused unusual side effects such as compulsive gambling, shopping, painting and eating.
(Arch Neurol 2005;62(9):1377-1381)

Americans currently pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Canadians, Europeans, and even citizens of Mexico pay only about one-half to as little as one-tenth the price paid by Americans for the very same chemicals. Drug companies actually import many of the raw materials used in drugs from other countries, meaning that some U.S. medicines are already sourced from countries like the U.K. and Germany.

Drug companies mark up their prescription drugs as much as 569,000% over the price of the raw materials. A typical markup is more in the 30,000% – 50,000% range. Retailing pharmaceuticals is hugely profitable. There is no business in the world with more profit built into the retail price of the product. How many business owners would like to have those profit margins?

The purpose of restricting Americans from buying drugs from other countries is to enforce a medical monopoly in the United States, forcing consumers to purchase drugs at the highest prices in the world, further padding the profits of powerful and influential pharmaceutical corporations who exert strong influence over the U.S. Congress.

To learn more about how the phamaceutical industry is fleecing America go HERE.