No To More And More Drugs For Children At Younger And Younger Ages
| ******** Action Alerts for This Campaign ******** | |
 | Tell Congress to stop letting drug companies extend patents by testing drugs on children! We are raising a generation of drugged children. They’re getting drugs for ADHD, for diabetes, for high blood pressure, for asthma, for obesity, and now for high cholesterol. We’re giving them drugs instead of encouraging them to eat a healthy diet, or to leave their computers and televisions and go out and play and get some vigorous exercise. All that is bad enough. But we’re also allowing international drug companies to create kids’ versions of their most popular high-priced drugs. Not only that, we’re also giving them a financial incentive to do so! We’re letting them extend their drug patents by an extra six months just so they can test those drugs on more children! Statin drugs aren’t good for adults, but they’re even more damaging for children. Nerve damage. Muscle damage (don’t forget that the heart is a muscle too). Memory loss. Liver enzyme derangement. In some cases even kidney failure. We can change this rotten legislation. Contact your senators and Congressional representative and ask them to reconsider this law, and stop the financial incentive given to pharmaceutical companies to turn our kids into a new market. |
| Read More About How Children Are Given Drugs at Younger and Younger Ages: | |
| What’s Next? Starting Children on Drugs the Moment They’re Born? | |
 | December 2, 2011 That seems to be the path a new recommendation is putting us on. |
| Shocker: Antipsychotic Drugs Are Being Given to Kids in Foster Care | |
 | November 22, 2011 Want foster kids to behave? Give them harsh tranquilizers developed for schizophrenic patients! |
| Children Are Being Exploited to Extend Pharmaceutical Patents | |
 | July 13, 2010 Want to protect your kids from high cholesterol? Just give ’em drugs—like the new, chewable form of Lipitor. Yes, chewable. Like candy. A new Action Alert asks Congress to repeal a really rotten law that encourages this. Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug—made by Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company—has just been approved for use with children in the European Union. It is already approved for children in the US. The motivation is obvious: Lipitor’s 2009 sales were about $13 billion, but its US patent expires at the end of November 2011. This means Pfizer will quickly lose much of its Lipitor revenue once the generic competition hits the market. The company is desperately trying to boost its sales everywhere it can before then. |
| Creating a Generation of Drugged Children | |
| June 2, 2009 The rate at which children are being given prescription medication for diabetes, hypertension, obesity, asthma, and ADHD is growing at a shocking rate—as are bad reactions to these medications. But why give cholesterol-lowering drugs and psychotropics to kids when inexpensive, healthy, and natural alternatives can do an even better job? | |
| Risks to kids? | |
 | August 12, 2008 As AAHF reported last month, “Our Children as Guinea Pigs” – we shared concerns with the American Academy of Pediatrics position on giving statins to children to tackle high cholesterol |
| Our Children as Guinea Pigs? | |
 | July 21, 2008 A new policy now claims that children as young as eight with high cholesterol should be put on statins. This is the latest idea for tackling the obesity epidemic and the fact that it came from the highly regarded American Academy of Pediatrics means many doctors will take the recommendation seriously. |
