GlaxoSmithKline Hid Heart Attack Risks for Bottom Line. Freidman and Rand would Be Proud.

The free market! Capitalism, pure and simple! Get government out of the way. Bad behavior will either hurt a business or destroy it. Let the invisible hand and market "adjustments" work their magic.

So imagine my disappointment when I read this headline in the NY Times:

Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data on Risks, Files Indicate

…instead of publishing the results, the company spent the next 11 years trying to cover them up... GlaxoSmithKline officials conceded that they had known of the drug’s potential heart attack risks since at least 2005.

So they had to cover up the risk, or risk huge losses:

The cost: $600 million from 2002 to 2004 alone, the document stated.

“This was done for the U.S. business, way under the radar,” Dr. Martin I. Freed, a SmithKline executive, wrote in an e-mail message dated March 29, 2001, about the study results that was obtained by The Times. “Per Sr. Mgmt request, these data should not see the light of day to anyone outside of GSK."

Which led to:

Hiding the results of negative clinical trials was once widespread in the drug industry.

Sadly, "big government" stepped in again….

In 2007, Congress mandated such disclosures.

Tea party patriots rise up, and take your government back. Give private businesses a chance to thrive again.