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Retired Businessman:
"The best staff I have ever
encountered. No problems with
anything. The food, I would like to
eat all my meals here. Now I am off
to continue my journey on my road to full
recovery. Thanks
everyone."
Grandmother:
"It's a great program.
It helped me get off my prescription
medication. I've watched people come
in on so many drugs and they get through it.
Everyone here has been supportive, caring and
willing to do whatever they could to make my stay
successful. The food was
fantastic. TheyWERE THEY
REALLY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? went out of their way
to accommodate me being a vegetarian.
I give them 5 Stars! I
look at people differently. I used to think that people
whoWERE THEY
REALLY UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES? did certain drugs were bad people.
But I no longer feel that way.
I know that people can get off these drugs and
lead a rich, fulfilling
life."
Construction
Company Owner:
"The staff-JJ, Kara, Andrew and the nursing staff
were very easy to get along with and helped me to feel
relaxed from the start. The food-I
wish that this was how I regularly ate.
When I first arrived I was a bit
depressed. I felt after some clean
time, I'd gone back to my old patterns of getting on and
off drugs. After getting acclimated
down here, which was a pretty painless process, I
realized my recovery did not begin when I got
home. I could start right
now. Novus made this part of it as
smooth and easy as
possible."
Social Worker:
"Overall my stay at Novus was a positive
experience. From the pickup at the
airport to my stay at Novus and to the airport drop-off,
you guys were awesome, well organized, highly competent,
very professional yet very in touch with our feelings
and medical needs. During a personal
family crisis, JJ and Steve went beyond their call of
duty to be supportive and caring. The
counselors, the kitchen, the nursing staff and the MD
all have my strong admiration and thank you.
The Novus kitchen is a 5 star winner. The grounds
are clean, quiet, green and very California.
The workout facility got me in touch with my
physical self. After seven years of
struggling with psychiatric medications, I realized that
I was able to safely detox. That
above all was a big winner. It has been a
class A operation, from the facilities to the skilled
and very intuitive nursing staff, to the counselors who
will do anything for you. I have never
been involved in such a program where
everyone went out of their
way to help me with whatever I needed even if it wasn't
related to my program. As to the
food, don't touch or change a thing.
You are very blessed to have the cooking staff
you have.
The program made me re-examine my whole way
of life. From changing to holistic
medicine to get at all the drugs I take on a daily basis
to how good it feels to have clearness of mind and
control back in my life. It is the
first day of the rest of my life."
Attorney:
"I am very happy I came here for my
detox. It was good that Eric and
George took charge and got me to arrive
here. I am grateful to JJ, Jean and
Frances. JJ really has given his all
to my care, so have the cooks and nurses.
I have been here at Novus for six nights
now. I am on the backside of my
recovery. I realized I needed more
care than just detox to ensure I will not
relapse. I legitimately want to stop
using prescription drugs now. When I
first got here, it was so uncomfortable that in all
honesty I probably would have relapsed.
Now, I am optimistic that I can do
it."
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WHICH GOD DO I
OBEY?
By Steve Hayes, Director |
In light of the recent New
England Journal of Medicine article detailing the
intentional decision by Big Pharma to mislead medical
doctors and the public as to the effectiveness of
anti-depressants like Lexapro and Paxil, what is the
duty of doctors, scientists and employees of these
companies to the God of Truth? Is it to ignore the
fact that 96% of the unpublished studies on these
dangerous drugs showed that they had little or even no
effectiveness?
If a doctor or the public knew
that the scientific evidence was not clear that these
harmful drugs were not effective, this would surely have
caused many doctors not to prescribe them. Had
there been full disclosure, many lives would be
saved-among those some of the students who were fired
upon by their fellow students or others on these same
anti-depressants.
PASTOR
MARTIN NIEMOLLER
A U-boat captain in WW I prior
to becoming a pastor, Pastor Niemoller refused to follow
the Nazi line and Hitler had him sent to the
Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps where he
remained until the end of the war. After his
release in 1945, he penned these
words:
"In
Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they
came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they
came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I
was a Protestant.
Then they came for me - and by
that time no one was left to speak
up."
THE CHOICE
MADE BY ANOTHER MAN
David S. Egilman, MD is
Clinical Associate Professor at Brown University's
Department of Community Health. He was associated
with litigation against Eli Lilly and Zyprexa, the drug
whose $4.2 billion in sales made up 30% of Lilly's total
sales in 2005. Dr. Egilman saw some documents that,
according to articles in the New York Times,
revealed:
- Zyprexa has a
tendency to raise blood sugar and to promote obesity,
both of which are risk factors for diabetes.
- Some 30 percent of
the patients taking Zyprexa gain 22 pounds or more
after a year on the drug, with some gaining 100 pounds
or more. Yet the documents show that Lilly encouraged
its sales representatives to play down these adverse
effects when talking to doctors.
- Lilly encouraged
primary care physicians to prescribe the drug for
older patients with symptoms of dementia even though
it was approved only for schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder. It is illegal for companies to promote drugs
for unapproved uses, but nearly every major drug
company is under civil or criminal investigation for
alleged efforts to do so.
- For at least a
year, Lilly provided information to doctors about the
blood sugar risks of its drug Zyprexa that did not
match data that the company circulated internally when
it first reviewed its clinical trial results,
according to company documents.
- A February 2000
memo sent to top Lilly scientists showed that patients
on Zyprexa were 3.5 times as likely to experience high
blood sugar levels as those taking a
placebo.
- Despite another
1999 report on the results of 70 clinical trials that
16 percent of patients taking Zyprexa for a year
gained more than 66 pounds, Lilly did not publicly
disclose this but instead provided data from a smaller
group of clinical trials that showed about 30 percent
of patients gained 22 pounds.
Lilly was successful in
getting the court to seal the documents provided to Dr.
Egilman during discovery to prevent the public from ever
knowing the truth about this dangerous drug.
Dr. Egilman is alleged
to have conspired with a New York Times reporter to get
around the court order by having another attorney
subpoena the reports and that attorney released them to
the reporter. Dr. Egilman was attacked by the
court and Lilly. Here is an article written by Dr.
Egilman.
THE TRUTH
IS NOT FREE
By David
Egilman
September
11, 2007
All that is needed for the
forces of evil to succeed is for enough good people to
remain silent.
- Edmund
Burke
The
consequences of silence can be devastating. My
father spent WWII in a German concentration camp largely
as a consequence of silence. In response to the
Holocaust, which was facilitated by the silence of a
nation, I have devoted much of my professional career to
studying and reporting the effects of silence on public
health.
Last December, I was
subpoenaed for copies of internal documents that I
acquired as a consulting witness in litigation against
the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. I released all of
the documents I had, which made their way to The New
York Times and became the basis for four major articles.
After the Times stories ran, 30 states subpoenaed
documents detailing Lilly's sales, marketing and
promotional practices for Zyprexa as part of civil
investigations under state consumer protection
laws.
I
recently reached a settlement with Lilly and agreed to
pay the company $100,000. I admitted responsibility for
violating the protective order that kept Lilly's
documents secret. I admitted that the documents I
leaked did not tell the full story about Zyprexa. I did
not, however, admit that Lilly's "story" of the drug is
based on fact, nor did I admit to any illegal
conduct. And notably, although Lilly claims that
the stories that ran in the Times did not accurately
reflect its marketing practices or its knowledge of
Zyprexa's side effects, Lilly has refused to release
documents that it claims paint a different
picture. Even today, Lilly fights in court to keep
those documents secret from the
public.
However, I refuse to silence
my voice on the dangerous effects of corporate secrecy.
History has demonstrated time and time again that such
silence brings nothing but harm.
The silence of asbestos
companies and their doctors, who hid their knowledge of
the hazards of asbestos, permitted a carcinogen to be
used for a century in schools, homes and offices. The
entire town of Libby, Montana fell victim to that
silence. Too late, litigation revealed what companies
and their doctors had known for over a hundred years.
Asbestos was killing thousands.
The silence of flavoring
companies and their doctors, who hid their knowledge of
the hazards of butter flavored popcorn, allowed these
toxic foods to be sold to an unsuspecting public for
more than 20 years. The recent outbreak of lung disease
in consumers of butter flavored popcorn is the cost of
this silence. Yet litigation revealed the truth - these
companies had known the flavorings caused disease for
decades. In this case, there may still be time to avoid
another asbestos-like epidemic.
The silence of Eli Lilly &
Company and their doctors about the hazards of Oraflex,
a drug they knew caused fatal liver failure, resulted in
unnecessary deaths of American patients. Once again,
litigation revealed the truth. Lilly pleaded guilty to
25 criminal charges of failing to inform the United
States government about adverse reactions to Oraflex and
mislabeling the drug.
The same story keeps repeating
itself. Over the years, silica, lead, tobacco,
pesticides, beryllium, Vioxx, Oraflex and hundreds of
other toxic products have ended up in our food, our
medicine, our air and our water. It is the silence of
corporations and their doctors, not a lack of knowledge,
which is the root cause of this never-ending circle of
public health disasters.
This blanket of silence is
becoming so heavy that doctors are forgetting where
their loyalties lie. The medical director of one
asbestos company was asked why he hadn't warned his
patients, those who developed asbestosis and cancer from
their work, of the hazards of asbestos. He explained
that he had indeed warned his patients; that the company
was his "patient." I refuse to go the way of that doctor
and remain silent on issues important to the public
health, for the cost is always the loss of innocent
lives.
When I graduated from medical
school, I took an oath to protect the public health.
That oath supersedes all other agreements, including
those that prevent me from protecting public health by
releasing information. My obligation to the health
and safety of others is the same as that of a physician
who informs the police about a patient who has "in
confidence" threatened injury on another. My obligation
is the same as that of a pediatrician who "violates"
confidentiality to report possible child abuse to the
police.
If Lilly has "secret"
documents that indicate that its drugs are safe or that
their marketing practices were appropriate, they have
the right to release them and it is in their interest to
do so. Their silence is deafening.
Silence can injure and kill.
For public health, the sound of silence is the funeral
dirge. I have not and will never play that
tune.
All that
is needed for the forces of evil to succeed is for
enough good people to remain silent.
CONCLUSION
Eli Lilly has now paid out
more than $1.2 billion in settlements to people who
contracted diabetes or suffered other serious health
problems while taking Zyprexa, or to their families if
these victims died. Presently, over 30 states have
filed actions against Lilly because of the false and
misleading claims about Zyprexa and there are
approximately 6,000 more unsettled personal suits
against Lilly and Zyprexa.
Some say that Dr. Egilman
chose to not obey the God of the law when he "arranged"
for the documents showing the true data about Zyprexa to
be released. Dr. Egilman, like Pastor Neimoller,
chose to obey a different God-the God of truth.
For this act both men have paid-Dr. Egilman only in
money, but paid nonetheless.
How many lives did Pastor
Neimoller save by speaking out? How many were able
to escape Germany because Pastor Neimoller warned them
about Hitler? How many lives will Dr. Egilman save by
choosing the God of truth and warning all of us about
Zyprexa?
Perhaps the more troubling
question is how do the Eli Lilly scientists and
executives who worship the God of profit sleep at
night? As they look out the windows of their huge
homes acquired with profits from drugs that harm and
kill, my guess is not very well. I certainly hope
that is true and that more of them wake up and act like
Dr.Egilman when they choose the God to
obey.
I am
contacting Dr. Egilman and offering to make a
contribution to the payment of his $100,000 fine.
I hope you consider doing the
same.
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