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Opinion: The Johnson & Johnson cancer drug scandal that encapsulates corruption in health care
Erythropoietin, aka EPO, is best known for its role in the Lance Armstrong cheating scandal. But EPO is also the star of another, darker tale.
Erythropoietin — also known as EPO — is mostly remembered as the drug that cyclist Lance Armstrong dishonestly used to win seven Tours de France. The blood thickener’s role in a cancer drug disaster that, by one estimate, cost nearly 500,000 Americans their lives has been forgotten.
That darker tale is one of the defining narratives of American health care. At its center is Johnson & Johnson, the largest health care products conglomerate in the world.
