Today's Unknown News:

The Run on Cipro:----- A Case of "Corporate Terrorism"?----- by Cheryl Seal----------------

In the wake of the Anthrax scare, people all over the world are buying up supplies of the antibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin), manufactured by Bayer. Why? Because the FDA and Bush administration have implied that Cipro is the drug (as in the only drug) that will "save you" from anthrax. No other alternative has been mentioned in the media as being effective against the disease. As a result, Cipro is being sold by the truckload -- it is readily available over the Internet without a prescription, in fact. As happens in any such mass panic, many ill-informed people are blindly treating themselves -- starting courses of the antibiotic as a precaution against anthrax, or starting a course at the first sign of any health problem out of fear they may be infected by anthrax. Unfortunately, the consequences of wholesale Cipro consumption may be far worse than the anthrax "epidemic." While Bayer will get rich quick off the panic, the number of deaths and adverse health effects that may result from the so-called "only cure" for anthrax may become quite high. Alas, it may be impossible to link these causalities directly to the drug because of the illegal manner in which a high volume of Cipro is now being obtained. To call the current situation a suspected case of "corporate terrorism" is, I know, pretty strong and smacks of the typical conspiracy theory. However, the facts in this case are compelling. Here is a chronology of the "case" with some background information supplied -- draw your own conclusions. Spring/Summer 2001: The sh*t hit the fan for the pharmaceutical company Bayer when evidence began to grow overwhelming that one of the company's chief sources of revenue, the anti-cholesterol drug Baycol, produces extremely negative side effects -- including death -- in some patients. One of the primary problems with self-treatment with antibiotics is that they are so often misused, and end up creating antibiotic-resistant strains of what should be "everyday" bugs like strep throat. So, while people are trying to treat "phantom anthrax," they may at the same time be cultivating super strains of common ailments. What makes Cipro especially dangerous in this respect is that it is a "top of the food chain" antibiotic. This means that bacteria resistant to Cipro will be resistant to just about everything else currently out there. And, new antibiotics can't be developed overnight -- the average time from development to market is counted in decades, not weeks or months. So, the U.S. is indeed playing with fire by having so much Cipro circulating. It's a new health crises in the making. July 28, 2001: FDA announces that Bayer's patented (and therefore exclusive) drug Cipro, an extremely expensive antibiotic, was to be the first specific drug selected as the "official" treatment of post-anthrax exposure. DOCUMENTATION This selection is made even though a list of half a dozen much less expensive drugs -- including plain old penicillin in cases of ordinary (non-bioengineered) anthrax, are known to be effective in the treatment of the disease. DOCUMENTATION, DOCUMENTATION (see page 2), and DOCUMENTATION This decision is also made even though Cipro comes with an extensive list of risks and cautions. Cipro may interact with: antacids, coffee, chemotherapy drugs, iron and zinc supplements and a list of other drugs; should not be taken by breast-feeding women; is not recommended for children under 19 (in whom it may cause a permanent arthritic condition -- DOCUMENTATION -- and has been shown to increase bone developmental problems in infants when taken by pregnant women. Not recommended for patients with epilepsy, history of stroke, heart disease, tendonitis, kidney disease or liver disease or for recovering addicts taking methadone. DOCUMENTATION To top it off, the cost of a single dose of Cipro is $4. The choice of this drug seems to say: Women and children (and uninsured) last. Why on Earth would the FDA recommend such a drug when other, safer and cheaper drugs are considered just as effective? Simple: the FDA's advisory board is stacked with folks eager to scratch the back of the pharmaceutical industry. Even back in 2000, when a less pro-pharmaceutical industry administration was at the helm, more than half of the "expert advisors" to the FDA had strong financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. For example, when the FDA approved rotavirus vaccine for children -- a vaccine that proved to have serious negative side effects in an unacceptably high percentage of children -- 3 of 5 FDA advisory committee members voting had conflict of interest in the case. Meanwhile, no one representing parents of US children was involved in process of putting rotavirus vaccine on childhood immunization roster -- even though many pediatricians say it was totally uncalled for. DOCUMENTATION

At the time that Cipro was approved, the FDA most certainly knew that Baycol would be recalled, and knew that the recall could potentially bankrupt Bayer. The approval of Cipro, of course, guarantees hefty military contract revenue. August 8, 2001: Baycol is officially removed from the market. Bayer stocks begin nosedive. September 3, 2001: Now knowing that it has Cipro profits coming from military and public safety contracts, Bayer purchases Aventis, a biotech company specializing in bioengineered food crops. DOCUMENTATION Good move, of course, as the key players in the Bush administration who oversee the agricultural business are former pharmaceutical/biotech people. Not only that, but it is well known in the industry that any bioterrorism scare would dramatically boost bioengineering stocks. DOCUMENTATION Early October, 2001: Anthrax scare occurs, and Cipro begins to fly off the shelves. Bayer stocks begin to climb very rapidly (check out any stock exchange site and get a one-year chart on Bayer. You will note the dive toward October, then, in early October, a sudden upward jump). Pretty happy ending for a company that just took a hit for selling a harmful drug (Baycol) which killed and injured scores of patients, eh? Aventis Pharmaceuticals not only manufactures a line of prescription meds, it also manufactures vaccines and conducts bioengineering research. Because Aventis is into bio-engineering, it has the facilities and know-how to have engineered a powerful form of anthrax, such as that sent to Daschle. An expert interviewed this week said that about the only place that would be capable of producing such a modified organism is a pharmaceutical laboratory. Although the deal for Bayer to acquire Aventis was finalized on Oct. 3, the deal was initiated in late summer and announced internally in early September. Now, here's the real damning piece of info, if persons unknown in Aventis and Bayer are working hand in glove to jack Bayer sales up rapidly and make a killing: Out of the less than 20 Bayer facilities in the U.S., three are in New Jersey -- one of them in Trenton, from which Daschle's letter was mailed. The Bayer office in Trenton doesn't manufacure drugs; it does other chemical manufacturing. Still, it's a Bayer town, so if the theory turns out to be right, the anthrax could have been produced in an Aventis bioengineering lab, then sent to a Bayer contact in Ternton for mailing. I've certainly heard wilder theories, believe me! In any case, the FBI most certainly should investigate. Also, in the wake of the WTC event, Aventis launched a major PR campaign that included shipping thousands of doses of the tetanus vaccine to NYC. But I will point out to the reader that most companies use sudden bursts of charity as a "decoy technique." For example, right when ExxonMobile was coming under most fire in Indonesia for its destruction of rainforest habitat and abuse of native peoples through hired "security" forces, it launched its massive "Save the Tiger" campaign. Even if the anthrax scare is not a higher-level corporate plot, it is conceivable that a handful of Aventis and Bayer employees and/or associates of the companies devised an elaborate scheme to make a killing (literally and figuratively, alas) off a warped form of insider trading. The scheme, of course, could be blamed on Arab terrorists. It most certainly would have worked: The stock bottomed out in late September and has been gaining incredible steam in the wake of the anthrax scare. Someone stood to make some pretty big bucks. 10/18/2001 Links Discussing Conflict of Interest between FDA/Congress and Pharmaceutical Industry: http://www.citizen.org/congress/reform/drug_industry/contribution/articles.cfm?ID=934 http://www.corpwatch.org/headlines/2001/0036.html http://commondreams.org/headlines/092500-01.htm http://www.purefood.org/Monsanto/MonBushAdmin.cfm Bush administration up to eyebrows in players with heavy ties to pharmaceutical: http://www.psrast.org/fdalawstmore.htm http://www.citizensforjustice.org/FDA/