I discovered so many highly disturbing things about the history of "Big Pharma" while researching "allergies" in dogs. Most of which I was oblivious to, but the most shocking revelation of all was that even most medical doctors are largely unaware of the history behind it!
From what I've learned, it seems that money and power were always the primary intentions behind the inception of Big Pharma. It was never truly about health or wellness.
When John D. Rockefeller, an oil tycoon and one of the "elite bloodlines," who remains the richest person in American history, realized that synthetic drugs were a potential goldmine because they could be patented and sold, Big Pharma was born.
"The growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest." - John D. Rockefeller (1839 - 1937)
(This quote is part of a larger statement that includes an analogy to the American beauty rose, which can only achieve its splendor by sacrificing the early buds around it.)
Rockefeller's wealth was primarily accumulated through the Standard Oil Company and reached almost unimaginable heights, making him a billionaire by early 20th-century standards. His influence was so vast that his wealth would still dwarf that of modern billionaires when adjusted for inflation. His fortune peaked at nearly $900 million in 1912, which would be equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars today.
In fact, his immense wealth actually led to the creation of anti-monopoly laws in the U.S., as his company, Standard Oil, controlled over 90% of the oil market at its height. This was something I learned while researching this article, and believe it or not, these laws are still in place today. (News flash - they're not working!)
At the time, most medical practices were made up of homeopathic therapies, natural herbal remedies, nutrition education and chiropractors. Synthetic medicine was still in it's infancy.
You can't put a patent on an herb or a natural remedy that comes from the earth, which I find ironic, because most synthetic drugs are made up of herbs and minerals- from the earth.
Since Rockefeller's ultimate goal was to completely dominate the medical and pharmaceutical industry, he needed to discredit the homeopathic "quacks" to achieve his vision.
He became friends with Andrew Carnegie, a steel industry tycoon and one of the wealthiest people in the world. Rockefeller was later introduced to Abraham Flexner, an American educator, definitely the lesser known of the 3 men, but it was actually HIS work that led to big pharmas domination & takeover of the medical industry.
In 1908, Flexner published a critical assessment of the state of the American educational system entitled: "The American College: A Criticism." -Which caught the attention of the Carnegie foundation & he was asked to join their research staff.
He then visited 155 medical schools in the U.S. and Canada by conducting on-site evaluations, interviewing faculty, examining facilities, and assessing curricula.
His findings were published in the 1910 "Flexner Report" (also called Carnegie Foundation Bulletin Number Four).
Commissioned by the Carnegie Foundation, the report was presented to Congress, who acted on the reports conclusions and wrote them into law, leading to significant legislative changes in medical education.
The report urged medical schools to implement higher admission and graduation standards and to strictly adhere to mainstream scientific protocols in their teaching and research. It emphasized the need to revamp and centralize medical institutions.
The report also concluded that the U.S. had too many medical schools, producing too many doctors. This led to the closure or consolidation of many schools, reverting some universities to male-only admissions to accommodate a smaller admission pool.
Many American medical schools fell short of the standard advocated in the Flexner Report. Schools of electrotherapy, homeopathy, traditional osteopathy, eclectic medicine, and physiomedicalism (untested botanical therapies) were criticized, and some practitioners were even jailed!
The Flexner Report transformed the nature and process of medical education in America, resulting in the ELIMINATION of natural medicine schools, and established the biomedical pharmaceutical drug model as the gold standard of medical training.
Sadly, many aspects of the present-day American medical profession stem from the Flexner Report and its aftermath.
(Or shall we say "culling")
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were various types of natural medicine schools: homeopathic, osteopathy, naturopathic, eclectic herbal medicine, diet, midwifery, steam baths, and more. Both allopathic and naturopathic medicine coexisted. There was not just one way.
Rockefeller and Carnegie changed all that. They aimed to establish a single approach by capturing the medical education system.
They created a monopoly, eliminating competition that threatened their brand of medical education, which was to teach patented pharmaceutical drugs as the ONLY WAY to cure illness.
The American Medical Association (AMA) was founded in 1847 by a physician named Nathan Smith Davis and heavily funded by Rockefeller and Carnegie. Together with the AMA, they made it their self-appointed job to reform medical education in America, targeting and shutting down the larger respected homeopathic colleges that did not comply with the Flexner Report.
They began to immediately shower hundreds of millions of dollars through their tax-exempt foundations on these medical schools that were teaching drug-intensive medicine.
For over a century now, the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations have engineered the medical educational curriculum through their grants and donations.
This is the problem that arises when the money is coming from a source that has a vested interested in the outcome.
Side note: Look up how many medical and educational institutions the Rockefeller family founded. It’s interesting to note that if you follow the money, you'll find many organizations that were not directly established by them received significant funding from the Rockefellers, which was crucial for their establishment, development, and impact.
The Flexner Report of 1910 was a setup. Flexner was hired and paid by Rockefeller and Carnegie (through the AMA) to publish his report with the primary goal of denouncing and eliminating the competition... and it worked.
The Flexner Report was crafted to support the vision that Rockefeller and Carnegie had for the medical industry, claiming that most medical schools were not teaching sound medicine, which, in the eyes of Rockefeller and Carnegie, meant that natural health colleges were not promoting enough chemical drugs manufactured by them.
To ensure medical schools fully embraced pharmaceutical drugs, they made it a condition that one of their staff be appointed to the school's board of directors in order for the school to receive grants and donations.
They justified this by claiming they wanted to ensure the schools were spending their money correctly. If the school wanted the money, it had to comply. Then they began filling the schools' boards of directors with their staff members who were on the donors' payroll.
In return for the grants and donations, they required the schools to teach exclusively pharmaceutical drug-oriented courses, with no emphasis on natural medicine.
Once that was in place, the pendulum swung in favor of the Rockefeller-Carnegie Big Pharma agenda, and it has remained that way ever since.
By 1925, over 10,000 herbalists were out of business. By 1940, over 1,500 chiropractors had been prosecuted for practicing quackery. The 22 homeopathic medical schools that flourished in the 1900s dwindled down to just two by 1923. By 1950, all schools teaching homeopathy were closed.
If a physician did not graduate and receive an M.D. degree from a "Flexner-approved" medical school, they could not find a job anywhere. This is why today, medical doctors lean heavily towards synthetic drug therapy and know little about the natural healing properties of nutrition and natural cures found in nature.
As a result of the Flexner Report, medical researchers primary focus is on the development of new pharmaceutical drugs to treat illnesses.
Medical schools don’t teach students about nutrition because it’s considered a natural cure or remedy. One doctor noted receiving just one hour of nutrition education in medical school!
A doctor can’t write a prescription for natural food or herbs because natural cures found in nature cannot be patented. This is why medical students spend countless hours learning about patented medicines, because the medical schools receive substantial subsidization from the drug companies, which in turn pay the medical professors. Consequently, professors teach medical students about the latest pharmaceutical drugs and later on, the physicians get paid by the pharmaceutical companies to write prescriptions for their patented pharmaceutical drugs!!
The drug lobby is one of the most powerful and well-funded lobbying groups in the U.S., often focusing on maintaining high drug prices, extending patent protections, and influencing regulatory approvals... and you better believe they make it their top priority to ensure that physicians continue to write prescriptions for pharmaceutical drugs!
Medical doctors don’t get paid to educate people about natural cures. And sadly, by the time they graduate, they are thoroughly indoctrinated into the pharmaceutical approach, knowing very little about natural remedies.
The entire medical field has been skewed towards pharmaceutical drugs, which can be patented and produced at great profits. The big pharma industry, driven by capitalism, often disregards the healing properties that nature can provide.
This is by design!! There is no profit in wellness.
Although highly toxic and often deadly, chemotherapy became the standard treatment for cancer patients in the 1940s.
It's worth noting that the American Cancer Society, founded in 1913, and funded by John D. Rockefeller, emerged around the same time Big Pharma was introduced. Whether there was an actual rise in cancer cases or simply an increased awareness is unclear, but cancer remains one of the most profitable illnesses globally, raising questions about the motives behind this industry's growth.
After analyzing the history and evolution of the medical profession, it's evident that it has been heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. And it's crazy to think how many doctors are unaware of this history and the extent to which "Big Pharma" has shaped their profession.
Despite all this, thankfully, in the past couple years there has been a growing awareness in the population (likely due to covid) and it's awesome to hear how many doctors are open to discussion about the potential of natural remedies, and there has even been a resurgence of natural remedies and therapies throughout the U.S!
By writing this, my hope is that more people are made aware of the historical and ongoing influence of Big Pharma and strive to learn more about the benefits of natural remedies. With increased awareness and education, we can move towards a future where natural remedies become the norm and pharmaceutical interventions are used as a last resort.
-Elacious Anjel
Comments