Pharmaceutical companies have been using technology to create drugs for some time and now their taking technology and putting it into drugs. One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Switzerland based Novartis AG, announced a plan to use medications embedded with microchips that monitor a patient’s usage as well as their body’s functions and any reactions to the drug. Once activated by the acids of the stomach, the microchip sends data about what is happening in the body to a receiver located in a small patch worn on the skin.

In January, Novartis agreed to spend $24 million dollars to secure access to the microchiped pill technology developed by privately owned biotech start-up Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City, California.  The first application of the microchip will be in the pharmaceutical companies existing anti-rejection medications taken by organ transplant patients. Of course, the company plans to take the technology much further.  Trevor Mundel, Head of Exploratory Clinical Development at Novartis had this to say at the Reuters Health Summit in New York, ”We are taking forward this transplant drug with a chip and we hope within the next 18 months to have something that we will be able to submit to the regulators, at least in Europe,”, he added- “I see the promise as going much beyond that,”.

Microchips are already being used in pill form to record the environment of a persons gastrointestinal tract. Called SmartPill, the process involves the patient swallowing the chip at the doctors office, then while in the system for the following few days the mircrochip sends information to a receiving device where the data  is stored.  At the end of the data collection period, or when the chip is passed, the patient takes the receiving device back to the doctor for analysis.  This seems like a reasonable approach to gathering information regarding a persons health using microchip technology.  Less invasive, less public and not as expensive.

The type of  microchip technology that Novartis will be using is currently being tested by Proteus Biomedical in the UK by the National Health Service. This system known as Raisin comprises of a microchip that can be digested, once it comes into contact with stomach acid, it sends a signal to the patch worn by the patients containing the receiver which decodes and records the information.  This way the receiver monitors when the pills are swallowed and will send a text to the wearers or caregivers phone if it isn’t taken.  It will also monitor heart rate, heart activity and how well the patient is sleeping.  This testing began in August of 2010  and on August 13th the system received the European Union’s CE mark, certifying that it meets consumer and health requirements.

The Raisin chip is being tested in the UK in hopes to get patients to remember to take their heart medication.

Invasion of Privacy Means Increase in Profits and Control

While this technology may come off as a helpful reminder for forgetful patients to take their meds, it also has potential to be a violation of privacy in a world where the threat of governmental control over citizens availability and methods of treatment for illnesses loom. Reminders for people to attend to their medication would be great news if pharmaceutical drugs were actually good for your health, but as most of you reading this know, taking engineered drugs is no way to address our so called diseases.  In fact, forgetting to take a pill can be a side effect of taking the medication itself as pharmaceutical drugs work against your body and impair neurological function along with a host of other side effects.

The reminder microchip was developed to fill a gap in the profit margin of the pharmaceutical companies, a way to be sure their product is being constantly used, reminding patients to take their pills and alerting their family and doctors when they stray so they can nag as well. Just another way for the drug companies to make money off of sickness while they continue to perpetuate it.

The microchip Novartis is working to put into their medications will be sending a mass of information about your every function at every second. The data will show when you sleep, eat, when you are active or at rest and of course when you use the bathroom and what you did there.  This is a lot of very personal information being emitted from you in a constant stream and it gives drug companies even more fodder to sell their over-priced pills while they break down every action and reaction happening when someone takes them. They can then use this data to ‘treat’ anything they deem is an imbalance or improper function, most likely with more medications.  It’s every marketers dream, an opportunity to gather 100% accurate information on the consumers habits and what makes them tick while at the same time creating a reminder system for the person to keep using the product.

The potential for it to be accessed for marketing information by other companies is an unsettling yet very plausible and unfortunately very lucrative idea.  Mike Adams, Natural News, had this to say on the matter:

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.

Knowing that the people around you could potentially tell if and what kind of medication you are taking is enough to make anyone anxious, as it should. Would you want a potential employer to know that you are taking medications?  Right now companies are drowning in health insurance costs, many are reducing or eliminating their programs altogether.  What better way then a simple microchip detecting device to find who’s going to cost the company in health insurance money or to pass judgement on whether your going to be healthy enough to do your job.  The one bright spot that this technology may may have is in the hands of police who could use microchip scanning to know whether the driver they just pulled over is medically impaired or not.  Mike Adams, Natural News:

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.)

Is A Microchip in a Pill Really Even Safe?

Pharmaceutical drugs are already scary enough with their risk of side effects known and unknown. To promote the ingestion of microchips on a regular basis, sometimes several times a day, as something that will benefit our health should make people more then a little apprehensive. To add to that, Novartis apparently is not conducting any clinical trials on the microchipped drug, most likely relying on the results of the Raisin trials in the UK.  Ben Hirschler for Reuters writes “Because the tiny chips are added to existing drugs, Novartis does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to prove the new products work. Instead, it aims to do so-called bioequivalence tests to show they are the same as the original.”   Yikes.

Microchipping technology has already seen trouble as permanant microchips implanted into dogs have now been found to be causing death, cancers and other debilitations in the animals. The VeriChip, intended for use in humans is almost identical to the ones for use in canines. Scientific studies on the implanted human microchip, which is a permanent microchip meant to store medical information of the wearer and a proposed requirement of ObamaCare, caused cancer to 1-10% of mice and rats implanted with the chip in clinical trials. Granted, Novartis’ microchips in pills won’t be fixed in any one place in the body, but the constant exposure, even to ‘food based’ microchips in your digestive tract has the potential to increase risks and upset the already delicate balance of our bodies.  And when dealing with the sensitive systems of an organ transplant patient, you’d think Novartis would arrange for clinical trials of the chip in their medications so they can be sure there are no negative interactions. But as usual with Big Pharma companies, the goal seems to be to get it on the market then deal with any repercussions of distributing dangerous meds only if or when people get sick.

Don’t Be Duped

Avoid microchipped drugs and all pharmaceuticals. Don’t allow you and your family to become mindless drones sending marketable information to people who are just keeping everyone as sick and dependent on drugs as they can. Now more then ever we need to take our health into our own hands. If you want to avoid falling into the pharmaceutical trap or needing any medication in the first place, find out what potential dangers to your health you may be exposed to through your diet and environment and avoid them. From genetically modified foods, a world polluted with pesticides, herbicides and other air-born chemicals, to the cleaners, furnishings and fragrances in our houses and on our bodies, the toxic load of the average human is way beyond a healthy capacity.  So many people are suffering from obesity, vitamin deficiency, poor nutrition and dehydration which all stems from the lack of knowledge on how to take care of themselves and safe-guard their health, especially when they have been trained to believe what they here in the media.  The last thing anyone needs is the pharmaceutical companies advising you on your health and distributing drugs while watching your every move.

With ObamaCare and Codex poised to take over the way Americans choose to approach their personal health, this information could be used as a weapon to control citizens, getting them to conform to government mandated treatment. Obamacare already poses a threat to our health and those who want freedom of choice in using alternative treatments should not support movements to have holistic approaches and treatment or natural medicines included in the proposed health care reform.  Imagine if it was enacted that alternative therapies are included in ObamaCare and these microchipped pills are distributed- the government will be telling you what and how much of any given natural treatment you can receive and they’ll know whether your following their orders or not. If you were to stray from their treatment plan you could then face losing your coverage.  There is nothing ‘natural’ about conforming your health to someone else’s control.

And with Codex, if you are found to be using herbs, vitamins or minerals at levels not approved (if the particular supplement was approved at all) you could find yourself in legal trouble with the government. The potential for a microchip to rat you out for taking St. Johns Wort or Vitamin C is as big brother as it gets.

The big pharma companies promoting these pills are after one thing, profit. Regardless of the risks to your health, their goal is keeping you sick and using their products. Here is an exert of a 2008 article from Dr. Mercola called Shocking Truths About the Pharmaceutical Industry:

Poison For Profit

Another shocking fact that few consider is that virtually every major pharmaceutical company has a corresponding branch that creates the toxins and poisons that contribute to the chronic diseases their drugs and medical devices treat.

So these huge transnational companies profit not only from the sale of products such as pesticides, herbicides and GM crops, but also from the symptoms and chronic illnesses that they can trigger.

The vast majority of chemicals found in pesticides and other products undergo little or no testing for chronic, low level exposures and for chronic health effects, effectively creating a circle of destruction and double profits.

Below is a list of such chem/pharm companies:
Aventis (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, GM food) owns Aventis Pharma

Monsanto (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, GM food) owns Pharmacia

BASF (herbicides, fungicides, pesticides) owns BASF Pharmaceuticals

Merck Research Company (precursors for pesticides and neurotoxins) owns Merck

Dow Chemical (industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals) owns Dow Pharmaceuticals

These companies work to create products containing toxins that cause disease of the body and then sale you a drug to ‘fix’ it- a drug that is really just more ‘poison for profit’.  Keep the pharmaceutical industry out of your life and fight to protect your basic rights to access the natural healing power of whole organic foods, proper supplementation and alternative healing therapies.  These are truly the methods of life saving and life extending care, not symptom suppressing medications that impair our bodies proper functions. Microchipping is here to the benefit of the drug companies and governments as a tool to turn you into a walking piece of track-able, profitable information.

Sources-

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A754720101108

http://www.naturalnews.com/030341_microchips_drugs.html

http://www.unwittingvictim.com/Cancer.html

http://www.smartpillcorp.com/index.cfm?pagepath=Company&id=17810

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1302814/NHS-launch-intelligent-pill-texts-you-forgotten-dose.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/04/19/shocking-facts-about-the-pharmaceutical-industry.aspx