Social Anxiety

Submitted for your approval: Max Mason, chairman and CEO of Mason International, hands down the largest Pharmaceutical company on the planet. Not much is known about the man, but the actions of his company are a matter of public record… and have earned him a prominent place in the annals of infamy.

Take everybody’s favorite social anxiety drug, Ataraxin: Mason International has bent, broken and wantonly ignored domestic and international law in every aspect of the drug’s development. Mason International’s rampant abuses in their drug trial procedures overseas makes one wonder if the company is even familiar with the term “informed consent.” India’s unwitting poor, for example, many of whom are illiterate and in some cases mentally ill, find themselves subjected to many and varied clinical trials on Mason International’s dime. Countless hundreds of India’s unsuspecting citizens found themselves on the wrong side of one of Mason International’s needles… and the results have been catastrophic. Ataraxin users, studies show, are almost 40% more likely to develop terminal heart disease.

If these facts alarm you, they should: Ataraxin was approved by the FDA earlier this year and quickly took the top spot as the number-one selling over-the-counter social anxiety medication in the country. Surely Mason International worked out all the kinks in its illegal, third-world drug trials before unleashing Ataraxin on the people of the United States, right?

Wrong. Mason International maintains that there exists no definitive link between Ataraxin and heart disease, and their lawyers discourage anyone from coming forward with evidence to the contrary. Nine months ago, one-time Mason International researcher Richard Crane tried to blow the whistle on his former employer. Crane claimed that he had found incontrovertible evidence of Ataraxin’s link to heart disease, and that his data was summarily ignored by Mason International. Crane resigned in protest, but Mason International’s lawyers put the fear of God into the would-be whistleblower, flaunting the confidentiality clause he’d signed when he first took the job. Ultimately, Crane could not let the deaths of so many people worldwide weigh on his conscience: he came forward, ready to tell his story to authorities. But before Crane could testify against Mason International in open court, he died of a drug overdose, which was ultimately ruled accidental. Interesting aside: The coroner who made the call is now on Mason International’s payroll.

But why, you ask, would Mason International allow a potentially deadly product to hit shelves and invite the wrath of the litigious bereaved? Because even if someone is able to definitively correlate Ataraxin and heart disease, the cost of settling the wrongful death cases out of court would still be cheaper than going back to the drawing board, and the money from the satisfied customers would still more than put Mason International in the black.

And the sad coda to the story? Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Mason International’s upstart competitor, was developing its own comparable social anxiety drug concurrently with Mason International’s illegal Ataraxin trials. Panacea’s drug proved to be at least as effective as Ataraxin, with only minor side effects. But thanks to the judicious application of the untold billions of dollars in Mason International’s coffers, it was Ataraxin that cornered the market, and Panacea’s far superior product remains tied up in red tape to this day.

Tragically, referring to this blog as an expose is a misnomer: most of this information is public and easily accessible. If even our lofty US of A, which has adopted the position of policing the world under the current administration, turns a blind eye to these blatant human rights violations and questionable business practices, who can we turn to to hold Max Mason and his lackeys accountable for their crimes? This city’s so-called “heroes” may continue to fight the symptoms of a morally bankrupt society, but Fury of Solace pledges to take the fight to the source. Let it be known: Max Mason is now officially on notice. His day of reckoning is coming… and the world will be a better place after he’s gone.

Fury of Solace
Doing evil so you don't have to
Somewhere in Los Angeles