Voodoo Medicine - Pharmaceutical Company Merck

The Educational Process of a Seasoned Dame

Just as in the ancient times, where practitioners of the medical arts where viewed with suspicion and mistrust, but kept the populace alive, modern pharmaceutical companies work their magic behind the scenes for the benefit of mankind (and their stockholders) and we only see the details when something goes wrong. From the initial identification of the efficacy of a potential compound, through the development of a drug, the clinical trials, and the first sale, modern medicines follow a rigorous and tortures process before the first pill is ever prescribed. The focus of modern pharmaceutical companies is to find cures for modern ills, insuring the welfare of their potential consumer and the health of their bottom line.

Merck & Co., Inc. also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the USA and Canada, is a United States pharmaceutical company. It was originally the United States subsidiary of the German company now known as Merck KGaA. In common with many other German assets in the United States, Merck & Co. was confiscated in 1917 during World War I and set up as an independent company. It is now one of the top 5 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world both by capital and revenue. (Wikipedia).

Despite pending lawsuits after the voluntarily withdrawal of Merck's product VIOXX in 2004 (Merck 2004, Wikipidea), in December 2006 Merck announced a new medicine called VYTORIN, which was approved by the FDA, and according the to Merck Website and Press Release "is the first and only product approved to treat the two sources of cholesterol by inhibiting the production of cholesterol in the liver and blocking the absorption of cholesterol in the intestine, including cholesterol from food". (Merck, 2006)