From time to time, it's worthwhile to point out some of the devious schemes drug companies use to buy influence for their often harmful potions. The most recent case is the announcement from UK drugmaker AstraZeneca regarding its pledge of $10 million to the American Cancer Society.

Certainly, this grant isn't chump change to almost all of us, but it is to drug companies that shell out close to $15 billion annually just to market their products to doctors, and spend an additional $4 billion on patients.

Nevertheless, it's those large cash infusions by drug companies that can take your discriminating eyes off the ball, sometimes when you really need to be paying closer attention. If you don't understand this then just watch the video I posted a few weeks ago, which will powerfully illustrate this concept to you.

Believe me, you don't have to look very hard to find cases in which those evil marketing geniuses use cash to blur the distance between fact and fiction.

Take, for example, the day before AstraZeneca's "big announcement" a new study found women with breast cancer live longer when they switch from tamoxifen to aromatase inhibitors, drugs that prey on the fear of women with a history of the disease in their families. No surprise, AstraZeneca makes one of those very same aromatase inhibitors, Arimidex (anastrozole).

Or, perhaps, you'll pass over a story about the 10,000 American patients now suing AstraZeneca based on the untold side effects -- among them the risks of diabetes and severe weight gain -- associated with its anti-psychotic drug Seroquel.

The path to reforming the current state of medicine is a long one indeed.

Please avoid being fooled by drug companies and their corporate giveaways that blind you from the reality of their useless and often toxic products. If you're wondering how easy one can be deceived, again I urge you to watch this mind-blowing video I recently posted.

On Vital Votes, Roseann from Califon, New Jersey says:

"As a cancer survivor myself (breast and thyroid), I am not one bit surprised.  My opinion is that 10 million dollars is just a good advertising ploy.  It makes the drug company look so benevolent and of course the ACS will promote Astra-Zeneca's products. 

"I'm sorry, but I don't buy into that crap.

"I make a point NOT to do the walk for breast cancer because I believe a cure already exists with alternative, natural methods.  Of course now that Astra-Zeneca has padded the ACS's pockets, the research that ACS does in the name of 'finding a cure' will be altered to suit Astra-Zeneca. 

"I refuse to walk to raise more money so that the drug companies can come up with more poisons, and then have the results of research altered so that they can lie to the American public."

And Jennifer from Akron, Ohio adds in reference to the tamoxifen study:

"So basically the drug companies are using a new study for marketing purposes that only showed women with breast cancer lived longer when switching from one dangerous drug (tamoxifen) to another (aromatase inhibitors).

"Huh?

"What about compared to more natural methods that are showing way more promise in the research of destroying the cancer by supporting our body's own immune response? Oh, but we can't patent natural substances. Talk about the 'fleecing of America!'

"The story that isn't told is why they're studying this particular drug in the first place, or what the true results were. 1.) This study was done to try to find a profitably marketable excuse to prescribe aromatase inhibitors (and save AstraZeneca's a**),  2.) The patient's age and tumor size in the study were better predictors of mortality than switching the drugs.

"Hmm ... I wonder who funded the study.

"Sadly enough, I have heard several horror stories from my professors while doing research in graduate school about being threatened if certain study results are not altered before being released. Of course it's also often difficult to get funded for larger studies if small trials turn out differently than funding agencies had hoped. On the upside, this is changing ... albeit s l o w l y."

Other responses to this article can be viewed at Vital Votes, and you can add your own thoughts or vote on comments by first registering at Vital Votes.