9 replies to this topic

[JVRudnick]

If some here haven't yet seen this......Google has agreed to pay $500 million....to the DOJ...for allowing Canuck pharmacy sites to advertise using AdWords to US folks...which allowed US citizens to bypass all statutes etc and import drugs that they (least as I read this) not be able to buy online...

http://www.justice.g...1-dag-1078.html

And here I thought Google did no evil....

:angel:

Jim

[iamlost]

Yah, they set that aside and took the charge against earnings in the first quarter of the year.

I have a split view on the justice as opposed to the law of the case. Google, an American company, broke US law and in later years, if not from the beginning, knew it and did little to stop the activity. However, the pharma cost difference between Canada and the US (Note: Europe has similar costs to Canada) has been and is often staggering: full retail often 30-80% less than south of the border - now factor in wholesale... Many Americans day shop/ped in Canada primarily to buy and smuggle (in baggage or mailed) prescription drugs. Even some over the counter medications due to different regulations.

Of course not all such pharma ecommerce sites were on the up and up, although many, especially the older ones certainly were. The sad thing is that online pharma is still 'big' business but the hazards are now greater with placebos, unmentioned substitutions, lack of quality control being rampant rather than rare.

And I suspect that Google made far more than it just cost them.

[Michael_Martinez]

Google's motto, as Matt Cutts recently pointed out, is "Don't Be Evil".

But every major corporation may be capable of committing a $500 million mistake. Heck, I look at it as a misbehavior tax.

So good of Google not to challenge it any further and hold it back from the public coffers at a time of great need.

That should cover about 2.6 days' operations in Afghanistan, give or take a little.

[SEOigloo]

Jim, yes, that was very interesting!

The sad thing is, the outrageous cost of medications in the U.S. has made so many Americans desperate. I was taking a medication for awhile that cost $10/pill. A bottle of 30 was $300. It was very slim times for us while I was taking it, and my own doctor actually suggested I try to get it from Canada because of the cost. Sigh.

[jonbey]

People here may criticise the British NHS but prescriptions are set at £7.40 (and free for many people) regardless of how many tables the doctor feels you need.

Mind you, there was a report in the news today (or yesterday) of how T2 diabetes costs are spiralling out of control.

[Michael_Martinez]

The sad thing about Type 2 Diabetes is that they may have found a cure or at least an effective dietary treatment. Doctors in both the U.S. and the UK have recently published claims of restoring T2D patients' blood sugar levels to normal with low calorie diets.

I, myself, am Type 2 Diabetic and over the past 1-2 years my numbers have increased dramatically despite all the meds. I started the Atkins Diet (Phase 1) less than 2 weeks ago and my numbers have plunged to near normal levels.

We're eating too many processed carbohydrates in our regular diets. Too many breads and grains, too many foods flavored with sugar, too many starches.

If Google wants to do us all a favor, it could buy out the carbohydrate food companies and shut them down.

[bwelford]

Following on with what you are saying, Michael, I have started a blog on senior health and I'm fascinated by some of the stuff I'm turning up.

If you want to keep your aging brain healthy, then exercise and reducing caloric intake are apparently key ingredients. One expert says that if you reduce your caloric intake by 20% then you will increase your lifespan by 20% and also will ensure your brain is not deteriorating.

Edited by bwelford, 25 August 2011 - 05:32 PM.

[SEOigloo]

Michael,
That is so good that you've found a food-based solution to your condition. Processed foods are definitely making the U.S. sick. All kinds of good books out there on this subject. Now they are even making movies about these topics (Food Inc., Forks Over Knives), and I find that so amazing. I've been vegan for 20 years and have always been so interested in these issues, and it's fascinating to me to see this getting into mainstream media.

Edited by SEOigloo, 25 August 2011 - 11:13 PM.

[Michael_Martinez]

This is the kind of stuff where I wish Google would improve its algorithm. I have run many queries over the past few weeks for questions concerning Atkins and health and I've had to take the results with a huge dose of salt. Some of the sites are obvious MFAs and some are just "rah rah" sites. If there is a lot of unbiased information out there it's very, very difficult to find.

[SEOigloo]

Yes, getting health information from the Internet is risky business. The number of high-ranking thin content adsense sites out there on really serious topics is pretty egregious.