-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- an excerpt from: pills-a-go-go Jim Hogshire©1999 Feral House©1999 PMB 359 Venice, California 90291 www.feralhouse.com ISBN 0-922915-53-9 247pps – First edition – In-print ----- The Strange Case of George Bush and Eli Lilly Bush was practically a secret employee of Eli Lilly while both Vice- President and President, and very obviously did specific work on Lilly's behalf. Lilly tried to deny all of this (including Bush's stint on their Board of Directors) when Pills-a-Go-Go researched the matter. Alexander Cockburn cited PaGG articles on this and other subjects in his Nation column, "Beat the Devil." In March of 1992, President Bush suddenly announced that the $4 billion genetic-engineering industry could grow to $50 billion by the end of the decade "if we let it." To help "let it," the administration proposed speeding the FDA's approval process for biotech drugs only. But since biotech drugs don't grind through the approval system any more slowly than other pharmaceuticals, why should the president single them out? The answer is easy! The administration's move is a payoff to an old friend—Eli Lilly. It is not the first time the President put himself on the line for the Indianapolis drug manufacturer—George Bush and Eli Lilly worked together for two decades, perhaps even longer, depending oil when you figure Bush's career there really began. Lilly has had a special relationship with the backroom aspects of government ever since it obtained the rights to manufacture and market methadone, the synthetic narcotic invented by the Germans during World War II. Essentially war spoils, Lilly continues as the country's largest producer of methadone (brand name Dolophine) for use in hospitals, junkie clinics, and where ever else federal money flows in as funding. In 1953, when LSD’s inventor Albert Hoffman would not supply the CIA with his new compound for use In their mind experiments, Lilly began making acid for the agency. It even devised a method to mass produce the stuff and seriously discussed the possibility of manufacturing it by the ton, for use as a battlefield weapon. Given this kind of coziness with spooks and the military it's not surprising that in 1977, after Jimmy Carter fired Bush as head of the CIA, Lilly promptly put him oil their board of directors. Although Bush had no experience in pharmaceuticals and, indeed, no particular business expertise beyond running CIA front company, Zapata Oil, he "worked" for Lilly for the next two years. Bush fails to include this in his official biography, Lilly, too, seems to want to forget the whole thing. According to the corporation’s librarian, Bush has never worked there! EventualIy one spokesman for Lilly admitted Bush had been on the payroll, but refused further comment. The matter, for all practical purposes, remains secret. George Bush conveniently forgot about his job at Eli Lilly in 1979 when he began running for President the first time. He sought to cover his Lilly assets by omitting them on his financial disclosure form, thus concealing more than $80,000 worth of stock he had in the company. He even went so far as to claim he had divested himself of all Lilly stock in 1978. When he got caught in the lie, his lawyer regretted the "factual inaccuracy" and Bush pressed on as Lilly's secret employee—by now in the guise of Vice-President of the United States. He used this position to lobby the government to lower taxes on Lilly's Puerto Rican investments. At that very same time the IRS was getting aggressive with Lilly in seeking hundreds of millions of dollars it said the company had avoided paying by pretending those profits had been generated in tax-sheltered Puerto Rico. Bush eventually made such a pest of himself, hectoring the state department, that the Supreme Court issued an order to him to abandon his lobbying efforts, as they were illegal. As luck would have it, Bush's actions may have been illegal but the law specifically exempts both the president and tile Vice President from prosecution in such conflict-of-interest eases. In the end, Bush kept his job and Lilly kept the tax shelter. The grateful company continued its heavy financing of the Republican party. It also helped finance Dan Quayle, who had "come from no here" to serve as Bush's second in command when Bush became President in 1988. One of Quayle's aides on the Vice Presidents Competitiveness Council also owns a sizable chunk of Lilly stock. So it's not surprising that Quayle's Council should recommend certain alterations in the FDA drug approval process—especially in ways that were sure to benefit Ell Lilly in particular. Just to be positive it all worked out though, Lilly executives did conduct a secret meeting with the Council just before the Vice President emerged with his new recommendations to relax pollution controls on one of Indiana's largest polluters (Lilly) and to make crucial changes in the FDA handling of biotech drugs. Bush and Quayle might not otherwise have stuck their necks out so far for Lilly if it weren't that the company was in the midst of a massive shift in direction to save itself from an ever-bleaker future. Lilly knew if things didn't get better in the early '90s, the company could have found itself in serious trouble. One thing, Lilly had no new drugs "in the pipeline." While other pharmaceutical companies were introducing new drugs at an unprecedented rate, Lilly still had only Prozac, which accounted for an enormous percentage of the company's entire earnings. Competitors to Prozac were already coming over the walls, and Prozac was dealing with some 60 lawsuits and the negative publicity they caused. The Church of Scientology launched a ferocious and effective media attack on the pill and Prozac was in trouble. For another thing, the FDA had inspected Lilly at least nine times in the preceding three years and cited the company for improper manufacturing practices, failure to file timely reports with the government and—contamination problems in its cherished Puerto Rico facilities. The company's stock was falling hard. In May of '92 Barron's went so far as to advise its readers to avoid Lilly stock, even though it promoted optimistic investment in a number of other pharmaceutical companies. To save the company, Lilly had begun to buy up impoverished biotech firms with promising but under-funded projects while dumping its more traditional moneymakers. For instance, in exchange for its worldwide capsule manufacturing operation (Qualicaps) Lilly got the rights to sell its human insulin in Japan. Quite an interesting trade for a "conservative" company. It began to invest in a small North Carolina research firm to research a biotech drug delivery system. Lilly money is even behind the ultra-cool "Shainan Pharmaceuticals," which makes its money by stealing the recipes of South Atricrican medicine men and working out patents for them. pps. 56-57 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soap-boxing! 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