Cipro-Bayers Anti-anthrax Drug Monopoly
Cipro, made by Bayer Corp (a division Bayer AG) is the first medication specifically approved for use in the event of a biological attack. A year before 9-11, U.S. health officials approved Cipro to fight "the deadly agent, anthrax." Cipro was already one of the world's top-selling antibiotics. (128)
Suspiciously, the Bush cabinet was all put on Cipro on September 11th, 2001 - almost a month before people began dying from anthrax. (129)"One doesnt simply start taking a powerful antibiotic for no good reason. The American people are entitled to know what the White House staffers knew nine months ago, " stated one US truth and justice activist. (130)
Amidst anthrax attacks and widespread fears of exposure, Bayer has refused to allow other pharmaceutical firms to produce ciprofloxacin hydrochloride - so that they can sell more Cipro. (131) Activists are now prosecuting a nationwide class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons in the US who purchased or paid for Cipro, accusing Bayer AG of entering into unlawful agreements with Barr Laboratories, Inc. and Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc. under which, in exchange for over $50 million per year, these two companies agreed not to manufacture or market a generic version. (132)
The U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson threatened to override Bayer's patent unless they agreed to lower the price of the pill, which Bayer promptly agreed. (133) Secretary Thompson ordered more than $100 million worth of CIRPO from Bayer at the "bargain price" of $.90 per tablet, when other companies offered equally effective and lower risk substitutes for a few pennies each, and then for free. No one ever questioned the unprecedented FDA selection of this single, largely untested, extraordinarily expensive, antibiotic called CIPRO for anthrax. Incredibly, according to the Physicians Desk Reference and American Medical Association, the drug is "contraindicated" - a fancy term for "historically bad drug-effect relationship" or "unwise to use" - for conditions resulting in pneumonia, which is how anthrax kills. (134)
Bayer's monopoly may soon be gone. Scientists at Rockefeller University have been working on an anti-anthrax drug. (135)