Another person with MS has recently died from PML, a viral infection that people with MS sometimes get after taking Tysabri, one of those newfangled meds that gunk up the immune system. The death was reported on Dec. 11, and today I read that a total of four cases have been reported since Tysabri was allowed back on the market in 2006. It was yanked from the market after some Tysabri users with MS died of PML.

Now, I bet you think this is going to be another rant against how so-called miracle drugs such as Tysabri often do great harm. Or on how many of our “nonprofit” MS organizations let us down when they take money from Big Pharm and ignore any dissonance in the “isn’t it grand” refrain that accompanies their hardsell to us.

It’s tempting ... but no.

What’s got my computer screen tinted red today is this: I Googled PML and MS in the news search engine and ALL that came up were financial websites. No media outlet seems to give a damn that people are losing their lives, or that the drug they’re frightened into taking can cause worse disabilities than MS. The big story is that Biogen and Elan, the corporations behind this junk, are losing money. Their stocks are falling, investors beware!!

This quote from Bloomberg says it all: “Given the expected negative attention that this death will attract in the medical literature and media, we believe there is increased risk to owning shares of both Biogen and Elan,” wrote Christopher James, an analyst for Rodman and Renshaw, in a note to investors.

My God. We really are just a cash crop.