Son of Big Brother and Big Pharma: Pill Broadcasts If You Took It.
How Long Before We Are All Forced to Take Medication?
Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
Compulsory Mass Drugging On Its Way. Thanks, FDA,
For “Watching Out for the Public” Once Again!
The FDA has just given intrusive surveillance a new meaning: Ability MyCite is a system that tells an app, and several people, whether and when a pill has been swallowed.[1]
Abilify (aripiprazole) is no longer in patent, reducing its commercial value substantially but the new product, a pill with a built-in sensor that sends signals to a smart phone, and from there to up to 4 people, is being hailed as a remarkable move forward by the FDA, Insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry. And, indeed, it is, if forward means bio-surveillance and the ability to compel medication compliance over the objections, legal, experiential, moral or otherwise, of the patient.
In a news release on November 13, 2017, FDA granted approval of Abilify MyCite to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Abilify MyCite is the first combination of drug and bio-sensor recording, and transmitting, whether the drug has been taken. The sensor technology and patch are made by Proteus Digital Health.
FDA notes “Afilify MyCite is approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder and for use as an add-on treatment for depression in adults.
The system works by sending a message from the pill’s sensor to a wearable patch. The patch transmits the information to a mobile application so that patients can track the ingestion of the medication on their smart phone. Patients can also permit their caregivers and physician to access the information through a web-based portal.”[2]
Mitchell Mathis, M.D., director of the Division of Psychiatry Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research proudly touts the advantages of this “advance”, saying, ““Being able to track ingestion of medications prescribed for mental illness may be useful for some patients,”.
The FDA press release does point out that increased compliance of patients with drug regimens using this system has not been proven.
According to the black box warnings on its package insert, Abilify, the first drug with an electronic compulsory use system built in, causes elderly patient to be at an increased risk for death and causes increase suicidal in children, adolescents and young adults .In addition, the most common side effects reported by adults taking Abilify were nausea, vomiting, constipation, headache, dizziness, uncontrollable limb and body movements (akathisia), anxiety, insomnia, and restlessness.
Theoretically, at this point there is no compulsion to continue taking the pill plus sensor combination. But how long will it be before a patient who decides that the side effects are not tolerable and choses to discontinue the sensor-laced medication, will not be permitted to become “non-compliant” and stop the medication?
But the news is even worse for proponents of health freedom: FiercePharma, a pharmaceutical industry publication, reports that the pharmaceutical industry is jubilant about the approval because
“adherence to prescribed dosing is a big problem, one that some drug makers have tried to battle for years; patients who don’t take their medications don’t refill their prescriptions. It’s a pocketbook problem for payers that foot the bill for a prescribed drug and then pay to treat problems the drug was designed to prevent.”
. . . In the case of Abilify, a patient who doesn’t stick to the drug could end up in a psychiatric hospital, so Abilify MyCite may find its niche. Psychiatric patients have particular problems sticking to their medications.” [3] [emphasis added by author]
This is a worrisome trend that opens the door to abuse by political control through psychiatric drugging, a la the Soviet Union, to forced drugging by doctors who dismiss or discount the discomfort that patients have with unwelcome drug effects and with non-profitable natural health option usage.
The tendency toward surveillance and control in our society is very powerful and this tool advances the cause of health slavery by raising the specter of compelled and monitored medication usage.
Given the severe negative impact of pharmaceuticals in every sector, this “progress” calls for massive push back to halt it before compulsory medication becomes the new normal of the control system.
Rima E. Laibow, MD
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[1] https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm584933.htm
[2] Ibid
[3]https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/new-digital-abilify-big-brother-isn-t-watching-but-your-mother-could-be?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRneVptVmxZV0U0TVRObSIsInQiOiJBcHhsS2Fab1Y4VDZjSzVqUEIzakFPYW1hSjU1WE9HWWFYbU8yUVhOSGI2R1h2VnlUa2ZYdlA2SFNqdGdsa2d0enoyS29aTVkzMzBhK3NtY05xdjRpaFZcL2ptbkFqcU1nakpKZzlYTU5KV2ZnYkVDcGJCT1kzQnU0a0Z6WEFFNngifQ%3D%3D&mrkid=4586534&utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal