Beyond Parody.

• Author: Eidson, Diana
• Position: WE HEAR YOU - Letter to the editor

I enjoy reading your magazine cover to cover each month. Thank you for producing such informative and engaging articles. I would like to comment on Will Durst's column ("This Just In: Greed Not Good," November 2015 issue). Near the end of the piece, which critiques the greed inherent in Big Pharma profits, Durst asks, "What's to keep these guys from creating diseases for which their companies conveniently have the cure? Ethics? How often have the Republicans lectured us: There's no such thing as ethical consideration, only business." Durst doesn't go as far as to say that corporations have been doing this for years, but I will.

Here is but one example: Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca started the public relations campaign called National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in 1985 to hide the fact that its parent company, Imperial Chemical, manufactured acetochlor, long connected to breast cancer. AstraZeneca manufactures the best-selling breast cancer drug Tamoxifen. Under pressure from activists, AstraZeneca separated itself from Imperial Chemical in 2000. Nevertheless, AstraZeneca is not only still a major promoter of National...