Michael Moore's "Sicko" documentary project causing preemptive fear among drug companies

(NewsTarget) -- Michael Moore's upcoming 2007 documentary "Sicko" -- aimed at the $1.5 trillion healthcare and pharmaceutical industry -- has mobilized many companies within the medical industry to try to discredit Moore and the film, AdAge.com reports.

Moore, who directed such documentaries as "Roger and Me," "Bowling for Columbine" -- which won an Academy Award -- and "Fahrenheit 9/11," says on his website that he asked the public to send him letters about their healthcare system experiences, and received more than 19,000 of them.

"To read about the misery people are put through on a daily basis by our profit-based system was both moving and revolting," Moore writes. The filmmaker says he won't discuss the documentary with the public, but says, "'Sicko' is a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country on Earth."

AdAge.com claims that the pharmaceutical industry is attempting to discredit Moore's film by trying to spin the filmmaker as biased and one-sided. Ken Johnson, senior vice president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), says America needs a "thoughtful and well-researched" investigation into America's healthcare problems, and insists Moore's film won't provide that.

But consumer health advocate Mike Adams disagrees. "Big Pharma is the king of spin and propaganda," he says. "And drug companies will paint anything as 'biased' if it doesn't bow down to the lies, distortions and fraud being promoted by the industry. Big Pharma is not merely afraid of Michael Moore, they're afraid of anything resembling honest scrutiny or investigative journalism," he added.

Moore says that every family he talks to about healthcare nightmares suddenly receives free health care when pharmaceutical companies learn they've spoken to Moore. "There has been a 100 percent success rate of the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, whatever," Moore says.