Want to protect your kids from high cholesterol? Just give ’em drugs—like the new, chewable form of Lipitor. Yes, chewable. Like candy. A new Action Alert asks Congress to repeal a really rotten law that encourages this.
Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug—made by Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company—has just been approved for use with children in the European Union. It is already approved for children in the US. The motivation is obvious: Lipitor’s 2009 sales were about $13 billion, but its US patent expires at the end of November 2011. This means Pfizer will quickly lose much of its Lipitor revenue once the generic competition hits the market. The company is desperately trying to boost its sales everywhere it can before then.
Pfizer also plans to apply for a six-month extension of its patent in European countries. As is the case in the United States, the EU allows drug makers to seek an additional six months of patent protection for medications if they test them in children, who generally are excluded from the drug studies done before a new medication is approved. The company has already received the extension in the US. And those extra six months could put several billion extra dollars in Pfizer’s pockets.
Lipitor has been available in the US for children since 2002. But it’s rarely prescribed, and it’s not (yet) the EU-approved chewable type. The fact that kids can be used by pharmaceutical corporations to extend their patents is nothing short of outrageous. This law provides huge incentives to drug companies to sell drugs to children—whether they’re good for kids or not. Case in point: the FDA has approved another statin drug, Prevachol, for 8-year-olds, despite the weighty risks for a growing child.
Duane Graveline, MD, former NASA astronaut and scientist, demonstrated the link between statin drugs and muscle and neurological problems, including memory loss and Lou Gehrig’s Disease, in his book Statin Drug Side Effects. Other documented side effects include nerve damage, muscle damage (don’t forget that the heart is a muscle too), liver enzyme derangement, and in some cases even kidney failure. Dr. Joseph Mercola notes a number of other side effects of statins, which he calls “some of the most dangerous drugs on the market”: blood glucose elevation, tendon problems, anemia, acidosis, cataracts, and sexual dysfunction.
Meanwhile, Harvard researchers have found that 85% of heart disease can be prevented by lifestyle changes alone—the correct diet, plenty of exercise, and extra nutrients such as fish oil, l-carnitine, coenzyme Q10, d-ribose, and others.
Many doctors are now calling for universal school screening of children for high cholesterol. This invasion of the home and of parents’ rights would lead to more and more statins being given at a younger and younger age.
And it’s not just cholesterol drugs they’re giving to kids. The journal Pediatrics found that medications are being prescribed for children in the US at a dramaticly increasing rate—for diabetes, hypertension, obesity, asthma, ADHD, and depression. Using a database of prescription claims from children with private health insurance, they were able to find prescriptions for almost 4 million children. In addition to calls for universal school screening for cholesterol, there are also plans to screen kids for mental health issues, which will lead to more mental health medications being used on children. We are creating a generation of drugged kids.
Some of the price to be paid for this is already visible. Pediatrics also found ADHD drugs causing hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms (in addition to growth stunting, reported elsewhere). Half a million children are being treated annually for drug side effects.
Pfizer has worked hard to protect Lipitor, its cash cow. In 2003, it funded the National Lipid Education Council (NLEC), a promotional tool for Pfizer which was thinly disguised as a continuing medical education group whose job was to educate doctors on cholesterol issues. Half the members of the US government’s National Institute of Health’s National Cholesterol Education Program were also members of the NLEC. That same year, a whistleblower from Pfizer alleged that the pharma giant marketed Lipitor for patients with moderately high cholesterol when the FDA approval was only for high cholesterol patients. Of course Pfizer has also worked to redefine what is considered “high.”
Doctors who were selected by Pfizer as investigators on the NLEC received multimillion dollar research grants, an honorarium, speaker fees, travel, entertainment, and the opportunity to attend meetings and network with luminaries in the cardiovascular disease world.
ANH-USA has been dedicated to children’s health issues since its founding—including the rising concern of environmental toxins—but nothing makes us more upset than the outright exploitation of kids so the richest corporations in the world can extend their patents and become just a little richer.
This six-month extension on drug patents so they can test them on children is reprehensible, but it’s a law like any other law, and it can be changed. Please contact your senators and your representatives, and ask them to get this law changed for the sake of all our children.
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As usual, the big pharmaceutical companies don’t care about anything except the bottom line. So what if the new generation is a bunch of (uselessly) drug-addicted and sick (from the side effects) people, as long as big as big pharma can get richer.
Only those poor unfortunates who have been rendered blind and bereft of discernment to know right from wrong by pasting dollar bills before their eyes will define “Bottom line” in terms of money. Isn’t there a better definition?
Our very sick society is teaching that definition of “Bottom line” in schools all over America. Should we wonder at the reasons for the decline in ethics among our youth who have, at the behest of our manipulative society substituted materialism (selfishness) for kindness and generosity and helping other people?
Materialism has never brought even one micro-second of happiness. Helping another person brings an eternity of happiness. But, if the person is blind (dollars over his eyes) he cannot know what happiness is anymore than a physically blind person can appreciate the beauty of a sunset.
According to a survey done by Harvard, children age 6 cannot tell right from wrong. It seems that too many of the pharmaceutical companies are being run by “children”. Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy when you think of your own children being manipulated by such ignorant people who define “bottom line” in terms of money?
The FDA needs to review the reason for its existence and stop the “revolving door” which is a matter of intense shame and dishonor and a definite weakening of America.
Your exploitation of children, who only rarely need medication if raised and fed correctly, is unconscionable and insidiously abusive. Halt it.
I cannot improve on Val Marjoricastles’ comments and I agree this is a travesty. I, personally, cannot physically tolerate any statin drug and experience severe muscle and kidney pain after only 3 days. It’s nightmarish to think of children being prescribed such harsh medications, when all that’s generally needed is a balanced diet and exercise. I believe vitamin and mineral supplements are really crucial to cover any lack in our diets, especially for individuals who do not have easy access to organic and naturally farmed foods.
Testing drugs on or, for that matter, selling drugs to children is outrageous. Kids, for the most part, don’t need drugs; shouldn’t be taking them. These drugs have a potential for harm but that’s not the bottom line for big pharmaceuticals. Those who have reached the age of majority can drug themselves all they please. It’s alleged they are mature enough to know what’s good and what’s not. Protect the children.
Kids don’t need drugs! They need a good diet and exercise with a little TLC. All drugs need to be removed from the shelves it’s the #1 killer in America. They’re is enough evidence here to removed all drugs from the market, but of course the pharmaceutical company would loose so much money. They’re are murders! Get into a better business that actually saves peoples lives and you just may make even more money and be respected. SHAME ON YOU!!!!!!!
There is something seriously wrong with the drug edition of the FDA to allow Lipitor to be given to children. There is an urgent need to make changes at the FDA so that patients and healthcare workers are not killed by dangerous drugs and devices. It’s time for a change.
I am against universal screening of children for high cholesterol. It is also reprehensible that there are extension on drug patents so the drugs can be tested on children. This law should be changed.
Please halt the practice of prescribing statins and other strong medications being needlessly fostered on children. Such practices exploit our children.
Nutritional medicines are safe and a much better choice. Thank you.
I still remember candy cigarettes. The reason they were outlawed is because they were getting too many kids interested in the idea of smoking. The psychotics in this world disguised as health and gov’t officials are eroding the morals and ethics of our children to replace them with these lipitor lollies – worse than candy cigarettes. Kids don’t know the diff between drugs. Prescrip. drugs are gateway drugs to hardcore stuff.
Does anyone recall the themes of “THX 1138” and “Equilibrium?” Mass Populations controlled by drugs? Fictionalized by H’wood, so the people think such control is only a myth?
i agree with bioenergetic..The FDA and big pharma are going to continue to screw with our rights to good health. They alone will decide what’s good for us and kill us in the process. We’re not sick enough with genetic altering of food, additives, pesticides, hormones and antiiotics. What has happened to this country? We’re a bunch of cows being led to the slaughter. Thankfully, I’m headed toward old age and probably won’t live long enough to see the next generation suffer. Now would be a good time for God to show up.
Please do not exploit children for the benefit of big pharma.
Thank you.
I would love to take action but your instructions and programming to automate this simple task are a little on the inadequate side.
I am a doctor that is accredited in the EU. Do not get fooled — there are many drugs approved in the EU and only few are prescribed. Doctors in many countries have a very critical view of the phamaceutical companies and do NOT follow their recommedations. We have much more freedom there to practice according to our beliefs and not to government views. Interestingly enough I had a patient in our European clinic that was a scietist of a pharmaceutical company. He was very sick of statin side effects and yet he refused to get off of it. Talk about holding the party line. We are having regular webinars on health subjects. There are two that talk about cholesterol: “The Other Side of Cholesterol” and “Cholesterol, Hormones, Hot Flashes and More…” If you are interested in them send email to [email protected] and will send you a schedule of broadcasts. You may also request DVDs with our TV shows on these topics.
Do not lose your heart… Stay alert and be proactive. This is your and your family’s health. Do not be afraid to make decisions and refuse “treatments” that are destructive.
Best wishes to you.
These drugs are dangerous for the adults who have to take them.
It’s time again to make sure there are sports training in all the schools the the US to give our children exercise and get them away from the TV and computer.
Doctors need to teach parents how to read food labels and if their children are obese teach the parents to buy healthy foods for their children.
Drug companies are rich enough.
Let’s start doing things right in this country again.
One of the side effects of Lipitor is “can cause muscle weakness”. I don’t know about you, but that last time I checked the heart was a muscle. What would possess someone to give a child something that will weaken their heart. What insurance company would pay for such a drug? A drug that will cost the insurance company more money in the long run! Yeah, that’s smart business!
Folks this has gone way beyond poor performance to dereliction of duty by all involved which includes the FDA, “medical profession” drug pushers, congress and many others.
The Statins are good for almost NO ONE. To push them on kids is criminal. Yes the FDA is criminal. We have PROVEN criminals running this country.
http://healthyprotocols.com/2_statin.htm
This is outrageous! Their greed knows no bounds. They don’t care who they hurt. Sign now!
Thanks for keeping me informed and for the work you do to protect all of us.
I am absolutely speechless and horrified at what the pharmceuticals are doing to the citizens of this country and getting away with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have GOT to be kidding me! This is an outrage! Not only are they destroying any credibility they might need, say when medication is really merited, they are endangering a group of people with the greatest ability to invent, create, and learn.
The almighty dollar can be a destructive force in the hands of the corrupt and powerful.
Children should not be given cholesterol lowering drugs. There are many benefits to cholesterol and children are too young to be given drugs designed for adults.
Martha Thompson
Of course you have to remember that Congress, all OF THEM, both Dem and Rep are corrupt, bought and paid for by special interests. There are NONE OF THEM that are alright or are doing the right job for us. Look at the state of our Republic. THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE.
There will be consequences in the next 12 months, just watch.
In 1939 I was 6 years old and in a hospital for children. At that time some scientist had discovered that sulfa cured pneumonia in mice. The hospital was anxious to try this “wonder drug’ so they decided to try it on me. The “medicine” almost killed me. My kidneys hemorrhaged and I have been suffering ever since.
Medicine has been going backwards ever since antibiotics were discovered and the pharmaceutical companies found ways to patent their drugs and the doctors stopped using natural remedies.
These manmade drugs are dangerous and very addicting. We need to go back to the old remedies!
ummm yea, and people are actually suprised that big Pharma can extend its for- profit- business to affect ‘all’ people??? Wake up folks and ask all of the people you know if they take pharma’s designer, expensive drugs…You will be shocked, especially when you realize the millions of people who are addicted to SSRI’s, SSNRI’s, et al. (Tx for anxiety, stress, etc.). Have these expensive drugs ever CURED anyone????
There are better ways to treat the body…God put ever plant on this planet to sustain our health!!
Stop bowing to every crackpot idea the drug companies come up with to make money. This stuff is bad for adults, not to mention children. Cholesterol is necessary to the function of a healthy body and heart. Indiscriminate use could do a lot of harm in a growing body.
KIds are not guinea pigs excercise,good diets are needed here
The pharmaceutical companies are only interested in money in my opinion. The fact that they earn so much money and pretty much control whatever is apparent if you read all the side effects from most of the drugs they produce which are many times worose than the symptoms.
Please think of your constituents and not the lobbyists and big business. This is a growing problem–the drugging of our children. This is dangerous and frightening. Do not allow this. Instead, let’s work on improving school lunches and providing for more physical education in schools. Get the harmful drugs (steroids, hormones, antibiotics) out of our food supply–dairy and meat. Please, listen to your conscience and protect the people.
please do not approve chewable form of Lipitor for kids. what this country is not more drugs it is more education, teach parents how to protect them selves and their kids against high cholesterol.
Okay, we are now talking child abuse and endangerment for corporate profit. Orthodox medicine, especially the pharmaceutical companies will not have their way on this one! I vow to email this to all those I know and all those on my professional email list also. I am outraged!
Isn’t it amazing Barbara that parents can be encarcerated for child abuse and endangerment, but the Big Pharms and govm’t can get away with murder? When and how will this stop?
Please curb the upcoming “patent push law.”
It “pushes” patents by testing drugs upon children who don’t understand that big money is involved in these “test procedures…”
-and who do not understand that there are other complications;either.
Doping is dangerous.I ought to know: I am a chemical sensitive for whom many medications are dangerous at levels that are supposed to be “safe” for “everybody,” but that is not true.
They are NOT really “safe” for “everybody.”
Nor do they reduce exposure to either the physical toxicity or the emotional bummers that often impair childrens’ health sufficiently to make them look like candidates for medications that are by no means always really right for them;or for their families;or for their schools.
Please do curb the “patent push” law.
Its proponents have been pushing people around.
Very young people.
And that is not right.
Yours very truly,
Louise Esther Rothstein.
I have to wonder if our politicians are when awake it comes to watching out for our bests interests as the general population, or is it just us that have been neglectful as citizens regarding our rights to proper representation. If we do not insist on being heard by electing someone we know will listen, isn’t it really our fault?
How disgusting and even criminal. Republicans are the main culprits but there are plenty of evil Democrats who support this too. Drug companies are pure evil and we have to bring these thugs down or they will destroy America. I know these monsters love to experiment on living creatures, but to do this to children is monstrous. God rot their black souls.
Learning that Children will be prescribed a chewable Lipitor is an atrocity!!!! I am currently detoxing off Lipitor and it’s not a fun trip. After researching the chemicals in it, I decided to go off it cold turkey along with two other pharma drugs. Thank you so much for public awareness. I am forwarding your emails to friends and family. Please let me know if there is anything further I may be able to help with. My if we drug our younger generation, there won’t be anyone left to carry on in time!
Sincerely,
Jimmie Hoadley
Dear Alliance for Natural Health,
Even though I have nothing against corporations or capitalism,
I do take issue along with you about giving children toxic medications for high cholesterol.
Their parents should be given the option of a prescribed diet or
choose the use of drugs and their known side effects. Once given the information and choice, the
parents can then decide what is the path of wisdom.
This should be given to the parents by the child’s doctor as required information.
Thank you,
Adam van Drimmelen
Repeal this rotten law
Today as I was listening to my local NPR station I was actually appalled that the conversation around cholesterol levels in young children ended with the suggestion of medicating them! It’s ridiculous. These drugs are hardly acceptable for adults. I have been controlling my own cholesterol with Red Rice Yeast, CQ10 and a healthy diet that includes EGGS! When the body is starved of good cholesterol it makes the bad stuff to counter the loss.
I could say, “Are you kidding me?”, but I know you don’t waste time on things of no consequence. What galls me is the savagery and barbarity of American and UK medical designs. God, make a way for people to know, understand and avoid the brutish, ravenous, rapacious blood suckers in the madico-pharmaceutical cabal representing themselves as health providers.
How can there be so many good ways to stay healthy, achieve comfortable longevity and when the end comes die in ones sleep (without coils, sensors and tubes hanging out of every orfice, vein and suppurating hospital-acquired wound?) except the Devil comes stealing and killing. But, he makes his agents appear as purveyors of health, comfort and sanity. Good God, what a perversion:
They say they are saving our week old infants from sickness. Then, squirt them full of multiple toxoids, mercury, squalene and sick animal cells, for three years, by law. Thus paving the way to the pediatrician office with gold. They cause leukemia and lymphomas in babies and treat them with the joys of chemo, radiation and cuttings and are sad when death comes. (The income stream is cut off from that one.)
Their medications change the developmental neurology of our youth turning them into social deviates, perverts and disabled learners. Many of our major social problems ae known to have their origin in madical care. But, people continue to believe they can do no wrong because they have been lead to believe our bodies are fragile, genetically and congenitally defective, and without madicine we are helpless.
How sick can people get? It takes people to want to do it, people to want to accept it and helpless recipients to suffer it. And, we call this civilized?
When it comes to Statin drugs of which Lipitor is one, I know a number of people who have been damaged and died because they were on this stupid cholesterol lowering regime.
I myself was on Baycol for seven weeks in 2001, and began to feel as if I had the flu and by the fifth day, I was so weak that I could hardly make it up the stairs at work. Finnaly, it came to me that that might be what the MD meant when he said to led him know if my muscles began to ache. I called him for an appointment which I got for a week later. When I saw him, I told him what had taken place with my health and that now for a week I had been off this medication. He said that I had done the right thing, going off these meds.
At that time my muscles did not ache, but since then they ache and burn any time I do anything .
I walk a Weimeraner dog at least twice a day for normally about 1and 3/4 hours a day and have done that now for about seven years, but when I am finnised the walk, my muscles ache till I walk the dog again.
I also had to quit the work I was doing and have been unable to work since then. aslo, my energy level has been very low since then, whereas it was pretty good before this took place.
I believe that the MDs are playing with dynamite, as it were, with our health, using Statin drugs.
For most people who use this med, it may take several years or even longer, but eventually it is liable to kill you. And for what? It is not the solution to the high cholesterol problem in our body.
It does, however, have a wonderful effect on the pharmaceuticals’ bottom line.
Dear person who can make a difference,
You may have some idea of the kind of person you are. You may also have some idea about the person who I am. The truth is, I believe in truth. I believe in love. Do you share those beliefs with me?
When will you and everyone else wake up and realize that holistic natural health and disease prevention are the only ways to encourage the true happiness and well-being of our fellow Americans? There is absolutely no saving this decrepit medical system unless we expose the sham of this “pills to cure your ills” mentality and start treating each other like human beings again!
Let’s tell it how it really is for once in our lives! There is a mountain of evidence proving that most “medicine” prescribed by conventional medical doctors is actually killing you faster rather than healing you.
While we’re at it, let’s talk about the “food” industry, since we’re on the topic of drugs. The “food” industry as a giant conglomerate has become by far one of the most despicable and rotten industries ever known on the face of the earth. You may not be aware of the depth of evil that exists in the mass processing of what God intended to be simple ingredients and a meal shared between friends, but it’s there.
Please, I beg of you, let children have a chance at being healthy human beings instead of a drug company science experiment! The greed and murder must stop, NOW!
Sincerely,
Erin Jo
Right, don’t deal with the problem – just drug’em!
Please change the laws allowing testing of drugs like Lipitor on children. Children should not be encouraged to take a pill like too many adults are already doing.
Congress, please can you protect our children from multinational pharmaceutical companies who are only interested in profit and from doctors who get kick backs from prescribing drugs to children. As you know, parents are vulnerable because they want what is best for their children. It sounds like parents are being tricked into believing that drugs are necessary for children’s welfare. As members of Congress, you can help future generations of Americans stay healthy and drug free. Michelle Obama’s programs for diet and exercise and understanding nutrition are far more helpful and cost much less money for American families. I hope Congress will stand behind her and not behind Pfizer and other huge pharmaceutical companies.
Thank you.
I am not in the least surprised at Pfizer’s attempt to distort money from the dubious public. People need to get informed and not summarily accept the nightly news reports and well designed TV commercials that flaunt dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. Big drug companies are in business to make money and to keep their shareholders happy, not to establish any degree of healthfulness in humans. In fact, what they actually accomplish is a sense of well-being and in reality they are poisoning the health of millions of people. The best word to describe this is CRIMINAL.
Please leave our children alone. This should be considered child-abuse. Exercise and diet should be the first steps in controlling anyone’s cholesterol. Medication should be the last resort.
Due to the fact that statins are laced with fluoride which suppresses thyroid activity among other negative side effects I feel they should not even be allowed to be used for adults, let alone children.
In addition, Statins suppress the body’s ability to create the essential enzyme co-q 10 which is required for building and replacing muscle cells.
I learned the hard way after years of statin therapy, I can barely walk anymore as my muscles are so weak. My heart was permanently damaged and weakened. I probably would have been dead by now if I hadn’t taken it upon myself to stop taking the highly pushed, dangerous medications.
Childhood obesity and hyperlipidemia are simple problems to solve without drugs (which we have no idea what long term use will do to a child); we get them to eat healthier and increase their exercise. Drugs are not the answer with all he potential problems. People already take way to many drugs that diet and exercise would help. We now are seeing once again how drug companies doctor the results of their tests to make them appear OK, when in reality they are deadly. So should we use kids as guinea pigs the answer is NO!
I just recently went thru my year books from 1982 & 1983. Most of the class photos were taken of each class standing up in the auditorium. What I found interesting was that 99% of the kids were skinny! Not average, but skinny! It is obvious that there has been a huge shift in our food that causes kids to be fat. This isn’t by accident. It created a huge junk food industry & of course, an enormous oppprtunity for the drug companies to step in and try to convince them that their product is the answer. We couldn’t be more wrong.
I feel that Michelle Obama is beiing unknowingly exploited by her husbands administration. She is out delivering a positive message of healthy natural and organic nutrition while the administration is twisting every arm in favor of the industrial food model to be forced on all of us. Surely someone has told her of the agenda of GMO’s, antibiotics,growth harmones,more and more additives and chemicals in the food, excessively processed foods,subsidized corn and sugar which are the biggest obesity culprits etc. etc…..all with the blessings of the Obama administration…..am I missing something here????
No you are not.
Michelle has a heart. Just look what happened to her home gardening infinitive. Her good example for us to grow our own food.
They declared the soil toxic, ripped up her garden and destroyed the food.
Her husband’s friends in big agra could not stand a garden for the white house. We are supposed to continue to eat the toxic products of big agra. S 510 is intended to institutionalize the ripping up of our gardens.
We are watching pure evil at work.
This really is a call to action. Us parents MUST protect our children from unneeded drugs!
Satan is out to destroy the family, and he’s attacking our children with drugs that their bodies simply do not need. They tried to do it with my son eight years ago when he was SLIGHTLY ADHD. I refused! They push pretty hard too. Must be a big financial incentive for the schools to push these drugs.
Drugs, Junk Food, Pestisides, ect…..STOP the madness….take the responsibility of finding cures and healing people!
Sooner or later you will pay the price of GREED!
I am outraged at the latest Big Pharma obscenity–Pfizer’s chewable Lipitor for kids! This “candy-like” drug is Pfizer’s way to extend their patent and its profits (by giving it to kids)–which, I believe, will irreparably damage kids brains, muscles, and much more. Read the book “STATIN DRUGS SIDE EFFECTS and The Misguided War on Cholesterol” by Duane Graveline, MD and check out http://www.mercola.com/article/statins.htm.
Cholesterol is vitally important to bodily function including hormones and brain function–it is not the cause of heart and circulatory disease. We are “shooting the messenger”!
Well said.
The whole “Bad Cholesterol” myth was knowingly constructed at the highest levels of HHS. It is no accident or mistake.
HHS KNOWS the statins are killing us.
Kids aren’t drugged unless the PARENTS submit to it. The doctor isn’t a god. It’s always a choice to give in to making fear-induced decisions. Chances are if you’re a parent drugging your kid, you’re drugged too and/or you’re an advocate of the less thinking, more quick-fix approach to health.
It isn’t always a choice when / if to drug your child, or to vacinate your child. Read the news. It seems like decisions about children’s health needs are made more and more by pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies and parents have less and less say.
I know a lot of time has passed since this article was published. Motivations aside, I think the chewable form is an excellent idea. I’m from Australia and was diagnosed with hereditary hypercholesterolamia at the age of 4, that cannot be controlled by diet alone. I have taken an array of medications since then. Some were horrible powders that tasted like eating sand. As soon as I turned 10, my doctor prescribed Lipitor, and it has been the best thing for me. By this time I had already been swallowing pills for 4 years and was quite used to it, but if the chewable option was available I would have preferred it. If you have ever taken Lipitor, you know that horrible, cringeworthy bitter taste I am talking about. As a child I often didn’t swallow the pill fast enough, and honestly, the taste is worse than soap in your mouth. I know there are many children and adults out there who have difficulty with pills, so this is an excellent alternative.
Maybe I am not as bothered by the motives of this, as the Australian government has an excellent subsidised medication plan on place where the price of the majority of the common drugs are capped for all Australians. I am not sure what the case is in the US.
Try not to over-dramatize the ‘chewable’ function. 6 months down the track, if children have better options for this drug, then that’s a great thing. Who knows, maybe the generic brands will release a chewable form as well.