In our society, we often correlate legality with safety.  We use household products, spray pesticides, and religiously consume drugs such as ritalin, adderall, oxycontin, and prozac.

We consume all of this, but how many know who made the drugs, and where the corporations came from? Who produces the chemicals we trust on a daily basis?

Transcript (video below):

These 13 corporations tend to be a blind spot in our understanding of history.

Tens of thousands of American toddlers are being prescribed Amphetamine; a result of this blind spot.

Neos Therapeutics is responsible for candy flavored children’s Amphetamine, sold as Adzenys. Shire created Adderall.

An understanding of Big Pharma is conducive to a big picture understanding of the world and power itself: it is an essential puzzle piece in understanding disease, hegemony, and health.

For instance, we have Purdue.

Purdue Pharma was created in 1892 New York. They are arguably responsible for the epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States, producing hydrocodone, OxyContin, fentanyl, codeine, hydromorphone, and oxycodone.

Novartis is the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporation by revenue, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, a 1996 merger between Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz.

Novartis is responsible for many drugs, from Ritalin to LSD.

Novartis has a long criminal record. They are known for animal cruelty, from drilling the heads of cats open, to experimenting on primates.

Sandoz polluted the Rhine River in the 1986 Sandoz Chemical Spill.

Novartis owned Syngenta, one of the world’s largest producers of pesticides and GM seeds. Recently.  Syngenta was sold to the Chinese government. State-owned “Chem-China” is now one of the world’s largest producers of pesticides and GM seeds.

Novartis coerces entire countries into banning cheaper, generic versions of their cancer drugs: namely Colombia. Leaked letters revealed Novartis’ control over the Senate Finance Committee, as Colombia was warned their 450$ million dollars in “Peace Colombia” money would be in jeopardy if they did not crack down on generic versions of the cancer drug “Gleevec.”

Eli Lily was created in 1876 Indianapolis. They are responsible for Prozac, anti-psychotics, cancer causing bovine growth hormones in cows, and cancer drugs to treat the cancer they may have given people through IGF-1, a product of rBGH-treated cows.

Created in 1849 New York, Pfizer is responsible for Zoloft, Xanax, SSRI antidepressants, Viagra, Advil, Chapstick, Robitussin, and more. In 2014, Pfizer spent 2.6 million dollars paying off politicians.

The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi Germany produced three corporations on this list: German chemical cartel IG Farben was split into Bayer, BASF, and Hoechst (currently Sanofi). IG Farben was Hitler’s largest financial backer, and was vital to the extermination of millions in Auschwitz, supplying the poison gas and more.

Bayer was founded in 1863 Germany. They invented mustard gas and pioneered chemical weapons for Germany. This painting of chemical warfare was commissioned for the breakfast hall of Bayer’s Carl Duisberg: he ate breakfast looking at a painting of chemical warfare.

Bayer merged into IG Farben Trust in December 1925, to become Bayer again after the Nuremberg trials.

Today, Bayer is known for giving thousands of children AIDS through tainted hemophiliac medicine, while internal documents prove they knew it was contaminated.

Bayer bought Monsanto in 2016 to create the world’s largest seed and pesticide company.

Oh, and they also made aspirin.

Sanofi, who absorbed Hoechst from IG Farben, is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. They also produce the allergy medicine Allegra.

Severe psychosis in a BBC reporter following Sanofi’s Yellow Fever vaccine is just the tip of the iceberg with this corporation.

BASF was another product of IG Farben. Unfazed by the Nuremberg Trials, today they are the world’s largest chemical corporation. They produce raw materials for pharmaceuticals, plastics, GM seeds, and more.

Johnson & Johnson is a household name, known for Splenda, Band-Aids, and baby powder. Unfortunately their famous talcum powder actually causes ovarian cancer, and they were forced to pay 72 million dollars to a woman who used their product religiously and got cancer.

Margaret Hamburg held the highest office at the FDA, commissioner, from 2009- 2015. She ensured Johnson & Johnson’s profits through minimal regulation, to ensure the profits of her husband’s hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, owning a large stake in J&J.

Hamburg’s father was president of Carnegie Corporation: both father and mother served as directors of the American Eugenics Society.