We’ll Take Care of You

USA/Italy 2007 / 73min.
Directors Paolo Manfredi, Alberto Baudo / Producer Paolo Manfredi, Alberto Baudo

The arthritis drug Vioxx was one of Merck’s biggest selling drugs with up to 80 million prescriptions worldwide and generating revenues estimated at $2.5 billion annually. In 2004, the company withdrew the drug following concerns over a dramatic increase in the risk of heart disease for Vioxx users, followed by lawsuits.

This scathing documentary exposes the key players of the Vioxx scandal revealing how the pharmaceutical industry markets killer drugs making billions in profits while victims are counted in the hundreds of thousands. Payoffs to prescribers, to FDA committee members, to politicians and to scientists seem to be common industry practices. Threats to scientists and FDA officials who try to warn patients of deadly drug side effects, albeit less common, happen nevertheless, and are well recounted in this very informative, eye opening documentary.

While Michael Moore reveals the failure of medical insurers to protect the sick in Sicko, We’ll Take Care of You shows how a major pharmaceutical company aided by a complicit system can supply killer drugs on a large scale, and get away with it.

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