Big Pharma to begin microchipping drugs

Big Pharma to begin microchipping drugs

NaturalNews) The age of pharmaceutical microchipping is now upon us. Novartis AG, one of the largest drug companies in the world, has
announced a plan to begin embedding microchips in medications to create
"smart pill" technology.

The microchip technology is being licensed from Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City, California. Once
activated by stomach acid, the embedded microchip begins sensing its
environment and broadcasting data to a receiver worn by the patient.
This receiver is also a transmitter that can send the data over the
internet to a doctor.

The idea behind all this is to create "smart pills" that can sense what's happening in the body and deliver
that information to the patient's doctor. Novartis plans to start
microchipping its organ transplant anti-rejection drugs and then
potentially expand microchipping to other pharmaceuticals in its product
lineup. This same technology could soon end up in pills made by other
drug companies, too.

The best laid plans...

It all sounds good on the surface, but NaturalNews readers no doubt have lots of
skeptical questions about this technology. For starters, Novartis
apparently isn't planning on conducting any clinical trials that might
take into account the safety issues of swallowing microchips. "Novartis
does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to prove
the new products work," reports Reuters. "Instead, it aims to do
so-called bioequivalence tests to show they are the same as the
original." (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...)

But I have a question: What chemicals or heavy metals are contained in the
microchip itself? A microchip that transmits data obviously must have a
power source, meaning it needs to have a very small battery or capacitor
of some sort. The materials used in capacitors and batteries, to my
knowledge, are toxic to the human body and should never be eaten.

Microchips are not food, and to swallow them seems risky to your health, especially if you're swallowing several microchips per day.

Data privacy

Another huge concern with microchips that transmit data is data privacy. If these microchips are broadcasting information, then obviously that
information can be picked up by anything nearby, including potentially
unscrupulous individuals or organizations who might put it to a
nefarious use.

For example, suppose a local pharmacy store installs a microchip signal detector in their main door entrance in
order to track people who are broadcasting medication data. They could
then theoretically decode that data and use it to determine what health
condition that customer might be suffering and then push competing
generic pharmaceuticals as a replacement.

Government agents could carry "pharma microchip scanners" that determine what pills you're
taking right now. This could be used to violate your privacy by sharing
that data with other government agencies or it could even be sold off to
third-party marketing companies.

I very much doubt the data being broadcast by the microchips in these pills will be encrypted because encryption requires real processing power, and there isn't room
for much of a CPU or power source inside these tiny microchips. Most
likely, they are going to broadcast raw signal data that can be detected and decoded quite easily.

Remember to take your meds

But the really scary part about these microchipped medications is that this technology will be used to make sure people are taking their medication. Drug companies lose billions of dollars a year (in their minds) from
patients not remembering to take their pills. Of course, half the reason
they can't remember to take their pills is because many pharmaceuticals damage cognitive function, but that's another story.

So this smart-pill microchip technology will likely be used to track what
pills patients have taken so that they can be "gently reminded" to take
more pills they may have forgotten. In the marketing business, this is
called a "continuity program." It's a way to make sure repeat sales
happen on a regular basis.

In this context, microchipping the pills benefits the drug companies, not necessarily the patients. This is especially true when considering
those pharmaceuticals that are harmful to human health -- and we all
know the pharmaceutical market is full of pills that have later been
found to be extremely dangerous or even deadly (Vioxx, anyone?).

Coming soon: Police drug scanners and employer drug scanners

Now, there may be one interesting side effect to all this: Employers who are
interviewing potential job candidates might be able to buy (or make)
simple drug scanning devices that detect the presence of a
pharmaceutical microchip broadcast signal. (You could probably make one
in your garage from electronic parts purchased at Radio Shack.)

This might be very useful for employers who don't want to hire people taking medications. They invite you in for an interview and quietly scan for drug broadcast
data. A red light tells them you're broadcasting medication data, and
they calmly tell you the interview is over and "we'll get back to you."

With employers right now drowning in health insurance costs, this could
provide a simple, easy way for corporations to avoid taking on anyone
who might create a cost burden on their health insurance plans (from
their point of view). I don't necessarily agree with this use of the
technology; I'm just saying this is one way in which it is likely to be
used by employers to screen out employees who are on medications.

Cops, too, could use a similar scanning device to determine if a driver at the scene of an accident might be medication impaired. Now this is a use I actually do agree with. Today's roadways are filled with mentally impaired drivers who are doped up on medications. The problem is actually far worse than
drunk drivers, by the way, and yet virtually nothing is being done to
combat this problem of "medicated drivers." (Most people don't even know
the problem exists.)

If people taking medications are broadcasting that fact through all the little microchips they swallow,
then scanning for the presence of medications is simple. It's even
easier than a breathalyzer test because it requires no action on the
part of the test subject. The cop just presses a button, waits two
seconds, and can then determine whether you're broadcasting medication
data. At that point, you might be arrested under suspicion of "driving
while medicated."

Another reason not to take meds

There are clearly a lot of unanswered questions and even some potential risks
involved in taking microchipped pharmaceuticals. For some people,
privacy issues may be the biggest factor of all, because who wants to
broadcast the fact that they're taking meds in the first place?

I don't take any pharmaceuticals, obviously, and most NaturalNews readers
avoid them, too. The fact that drugs will soon be microchipped is yet
another good reason to find more holistic ways to take care of your
health. Don't bet your life (and your privacy) on Big Pharma's pills.
Choose a healthy, holistic lifestyle based on nutritious, organic foods,
regular exercise and the avoidance of all man-made (synthetic)
chemicals, and you most likely won't ever need pharmaceuticals for your
entire life.

The age of microchipping people and microchipping medications is now upon us. Given what the TSA is doing right now with
naked body scanners (http://www.naturalnews.com/030100_n...), you can only imagine what Big Brother will do with any medication data you might be broadcasting from inside your body.

In fact, the very idea that there is a microchip inside your body that's
broadcasting data might get you flagged as a possible terrorist by the
TSA, which would then proceed to finger your genitals and palm your
breasts as part of their new "enhanced pat-down" groping technique. (http://www.naturalnews.com/030302_T...)

The best way to avoid all this risk is to simply eat your veggies and drink your superfoods. Don't become a trackable, traceable,
microchipped subject of the medical industry that wants to turn your
body into a chemical profit center.