Pfizer Knew Their Blockbuster Drug Might Also Prevent Alzheimer’s
Pfizer Knew Their Blockbuster Drug Might Also Prevent Alzheimer’s: In 2015, researchers inside Pfizer made a startling discovery — the company’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis therapy Enbrel appeared to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by an astonishing 64 percent and urged Pfizer to immediately conduct clinical trials. But verifying all that would have required paying for clinical trials and besides, Pfizer’s patent on Enbrel was about to expire — so, Pfizer not only nixed any further Alzheimer’s research, but also decided to not even make the possible life-saving data public.
Why, if one weren’t constantly tuned in to say — Fox News or Breitbart, one might accidentally conclude that Pfizer is a greedy, heartless, money-grabbing corporation who made the decision not to save people from a cruel disease, simply because their patent was about to run out and they wouldn’t have been able to make a huge financial killing from it. Now I’m sure people like Mitch McConnell would say, “well OK, but who could fault them for that?”
Meanwhile, financial data show that Pfizer pulled in well over two billion dollars last year, just on Enbrel alone. Yet, they couldn’t see fit to spend just a few million of that on conducting Alzheimer’s research — nor, would they permit anyone else to either. But hey, the stockholders were happy, so what’s the problem? After all, you’re never gonna be able to please everyone.
