From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 28, 2006 4:45:51 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (NYTr List)
Subject: [NYTr] Big Pharma Worried Sick over Michael Moore's "Sicko"
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
sent by Rich Winkel (activ-l)
NewsTarget.com - Aug 22, 2006
http://www.newstarget.com/020085.html
Michael Moore's "Sicko" documentary project causing preemptive fear
among drug companies
(NewsTarget) -- Michael Moore's upcoming 2007 documentary "Sicko" --
aimed at the $1.5 trillion healthcare and pharmaceutical industry
-- has
mobilized many companies within the medical industry to try to
discredit
Moore and the film, AdAge.com reports.
Moore, who directed such documentaries as "Roger and Me," "Bowling for
Columbine" -- which won an Academy Award -- and "Fahrenheit 9/11,"
says
on his website that he asked the public to send him letters about
their
healthcare system experiences, and received more than 19,000 of them.
"To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by
our profit-based system was both moving and revolting," Moore writes.
The filmmaker says he won't discuss the documentary with the
public, but
says, "'Sicko' is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care
in the richest country on Earth."
AdAge.com claims that the pharmaceutical industry is attempting to
discredit Moore's film by trying to spin the filmmaker as biased and
one-sided. Ken Johnson, senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), says America needs a
"thoughtful and well-researched" investigation into America's
healthcare
<http://www.newstarget.com/healthcare.html> problems, and insists
Moore's film won't provide that.
But consumer health advocate Mike Adams disagrees. "Big Pharma
<http://www.newstarget.com/Big_Pharma.html> is the king of spin and
propaganda," he says. "And drug companies
<http://www.newstarget.com/drug_companies.html> will paint anything as
'biased' if it doesn't bow down to the lies, distortions and fraud
being
promoted by the industry. Big Pharma is not merely afraid of Michael
Moore, they're afraid of anything resembling honest scrutiny or
investigative journalism," he added.
Moore says that every family he talks to about healthcare nightmares
suddenly receives free health care when pharmaceutical companies learn
they've spoken to Moore. "There has been a 100 percent success rate of
the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from HMOs,
pharmaceutical companies, whatever," Moore says.
***
Ad Age - Aug 21, 2006
http://adage.com/article?article_id=111424
Michael Moore Documentary Rattles Health-Care Giants
Trade Groups on the Defensive; Pharma Companies Allege Bias
By Rich Thomaselli
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The health-care industry is worried sick over
"Sicko."
Pharmaceutical companies have told their employees not to talk to
documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, whose next project, 'Sicko,'
looks
at health care in the U.S.
Few details have emerged about the 2007 documentary from Michael
Moore,
the filmmaker who ripped apart Detroit automakers with "Roger and Me"
and now has his sights set on the $1.5 trillion pharmaceutical and
health-care industry. But it's still enough to mobilize health-care
trade groups who are trying to discredit the film.
No balance from Moore
"A review of America's health-care system should be balanced,
thoughtful
and well-researched to pin down what works and what needs to be
improved," said Ken Johnson, senior VP for the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America. "You won't get that from Michael Moore."
Added a spokesman for one of the top 10 pharma companies: "We
expect it
will be one-sided and biased, just like his other documentaries."
Several other pharmaceutical makers did not return calls for comment.
But Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline all advised their
employees
last year not to speak to Mr. Moore when he began his research for
"Sicko." It is not known whether any HMOs or drug companies will
appear
in the film.
"We were approached, but declined," said a spokeswoman for a second
top-10 drugmaker. "Frankly, as much as we felt like we wanted to
get our
message across, in the end we didn't want to subject ourselves to the
editing process."
Academy Award winner
Mr. Moore, the Academy Award-winning director of "Bowling for
Columbine"
and "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- the latter the biggest-grossing
documentary in
movie history -- recently told "Variety" that the drug companies have
been on to him for some time.
"They're so hip [to me] that whenever we have a family" with a
health-care nightmare "they get free health care," Mr. Moore said
during
panel discussions last month at his second annual Traverse City Film
Festival in Michigan. "There has been a 100% success rate of the
people
we're filming of getting whatever they need from the HMOs,
pharmaceutical companies, whatever."
On his website, Mr. Moore offered a snapshot of what the documentary
entails. "Back in February, I asked if people would send me letters
describing their experiences with our health-care system, and I
received
over 19,000 of them," he wrote. "To read about the misery people
are put
through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving
and
revolting. We've spent the better part of this year shooting our next
movie, 'Sicko.' As we've done with our other films, we don't discuss
them while we are making them. If people ask, we tell them 'Sicko'
is a
comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest
country on Earth."
Film in flux
Mr. Moore didn't return calls for comment. But on his site he said
that,
like his other films, what he starts with is not necessarily what he
ends with.
"That, I can say with certainty, is happening now as we shoot
'Sicko,'"
he wrote. "I don't think the country needs a movie that tells you that
HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies suck. Everybody knows that. I'd
like to show you some things you don't know. So stay tuned for where
this movie has led me. I think you might enjoy it."
*
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