From The Cancer Chronicles #29
İ 1995 by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
The march towards monopoly in the drug field continues unabated. On August 20, the US giant Upjohn and the Swedish company Pharmacia announced plans to merge. The goal of the new company, called Pharmacia & Upjohn, will not just share product lines and sales forces but to cut costs. First thing, it will lay off 4,000 workers.
The new company will be among the worldıs ten largest drug firms, with around $7 billion in annual sales. The announcement came two days after Rhone-Poulenc Rorer launched a hostile bid for the British Fisons company. The Swedish government owns 14 percent of Pharmacia. One of the focuses of the new company will be anticancer drugs. "For its part, the Scandinavian group brings new products to the party--particularly in cancer care" said the Financial Times (8/21/95).
Some party!
Pharmacia has recently expressed interest in developing innovative immunological
products for cancer. One can only hope. In the meantime, patients and
alternative practitioners confront an ever-narrowing circle of ever-more-powerful
allopathic drug producers.
