Big PharmaCandace Emanuel

Pricey, Pricey, PRICEY

As the demand for drugs goes up, so do the prices. The growing use of high tech treatments, diagnoses and

medications make the health care grow to an all time high.

More and more specialists are needed instead of regular practicing doctors, but is it for the money?

A high 75% of specialist in the U.S. have a profit motive and work for a profit organization.

Physicians’ income, in the U.S. went up 43.9% in 1984-92 due to the technology boom in our economy.

Technology has increase the cost of everything overtime, but is making the medicines, treatments and diagnoses quicker.

Pricey, Pricey, PRICEY

The U.S. has reported more unnecessary procedures, 20-30%, then any other. This could result in fatality, long-term illnesses,

and other complications Our aging population has help Pharma make

the majority of its money. 10% of our Health Care cost, $98 Billion, is

fraud

“Me Too” Drugs

“Me Too” is a term used to describe a drug that in the process of getting patented. “Me Too” drugs are largely duplicated to the action of the “existing

drugs”. The “Me Too” drug will only have to be tested against saline during

the patent process. There are many controversies over the innovations of the drugs.

Drug patents have very little life, if any at all. There is an unacceptable amount of risk for the consumers

Since the patent is easily achieved there is much room for unwanted side effects from a certain patent.

They are using more resources then they are worth Generic drugs may give more benefits to patience than the price

competitor. These “Me Too” forced competitor are using resources that may not be

available. Which in term, makes the price rise.

FDA Regulations

FDA Regulations are the same for the hundreds of millions of drugs that come out each year.

Most of the research is funded by the medical school the doctor went to.

Billions Spent on Marketing Identical Drugs

“Angell goes on to point out that of all the drugs the FDA approved between1993 and 2003, 78% were similar to already marketed drugs. Even more shocking was that 68% weren't even new compounds but a reformulation (change from capsule to tablet, short to long acting, etc) or a recombination of existing drugs (in psychiatry this is a common ruse to extend a patent on a brand name drug)”

“Me Too” Drugs come at a cost. It take more money, resources andcapital even to create a drug that is basically the same.

The HARMFUL effects of “Me Too” Drugs

“about 35-40% of patients (only slightly higher than the placebo response) get a positive response to any SSRI, while 60% fail to improve or experience horrible side effects”

“Me Too” drugs are driving Health Care cost up so high, and they are killing us.

While testing either the placebo or the “Me Too drugyou aren’t covered by your Health insurance either.

Though the testing of these drugs are necessary, why are more than 80% of “Me Too”drugs with a more than 30%response get a patient?

Dr. Perks

Pharma’s Top Paid List

Pictured, from left to right, top: Amir Sharafkhaneh, Samuel Dagogo-Jack, Stephen Landy. Bottom: Farhad Zangeneh, David Rizzieri, Eliot Brinton.

Dr. Perks

These doctors are Pharma’s most successful speakers. They are featured at big company dinners

promoting favored pills to their peers. Each has earned at least $200,000 since 2009

The ranks of the top earners and their pay are almost certainly much greater, as more than 70 drug firms haven't publicly reported all their speakers and consultants.

DR. PERKS?

“In the medical world, there's much debate about whether physicians should be paid to promote the products of drug firms at all. Critics of such talks say companies are using doctors as celebrity spokespeople, exploiting their prestige to deliver what is essentially a drug sales rep's pitch.”

• Are doctors responsible and paid to promote drugs?

•We are supposed to trust doctors. For some of usthey have the chance tolive in their very hands.Big Pharma has corrupted doctors to believe they must promote a drug to makemoney. Big Pharma hasmade doctors look likecelebrities and they willfall for such.

Free Samples

Pharmaceutical companies often use drug samples as a marketing strategy. Little is known about how the availability of drug samples

affects physicians' prescribing practices. Other than, there are reasons why physicians dispense certain

drug samples, and drug samples lead physicians to use medications other than their preferred drug choice.

In 2008, drug companies spent only slightly more on promoting new drugs than they did marketing copycat drugs.

Free Samples

“Drug samples may promote poor habits among physicians, encouraging disregard of evidence-based guidelines or prescribing of products not on hospital or managed care formularies. Furthermore, when physicians dispense drug samples, patients might not have the benefit of pharmacy counseling about medication use and identification of drug-drug interaction”

Free Samples are provided by big named drug companies. They are trying to push the more expensive drug, not only on you, butonto your doctor. Many of the Free samples will be drugs for allergy medication, antacid, blood pressure an d even anti anxiety.All of the side effects need to be discussed with your doctor before you take the Free Sample. You may end up sick. Most of these drugs have harmful side-effects.

Advertisements

Drug companies spent approximately $20.5 billion on promotional activities (10.8% of total revenue) in 2008.

Drug advertising has been shown to affect physicians' prescribing behaviors, with an estimated $12 billion a year spent on drug advertising and marketing. 

Advertisements

“Cialis: Yes, the one with the make-out music in the background and the couple sitting side-by-side in the bathtubs out in a meadow or something. Why is it so difficult for these folks to find a tub big enough to fit them both?”

-Anti-Big Pharma Advocate

Ads like Cialis get criticized forbeing over the top, but they reach the intended audience.

Furthermore, the ads do not include all of side possible effects.

Commercializing

‘Ask your doctor if ____ is right for you’ So, advertisements are

effective at getting the word out about certain drugs, but they educate consumers and present them with misguided information.

Drug commercialization is misleading.

Ultimately leading to the issue of over mediated patients.

Is this SAFE advertising?

What is more unknown is why drug ads that show hypochondria, raise health fears and "sell" diseases are often the most common--and effective--even when the drugs themselves are of questionable safety.

ADHD Medicines

How the “BIG P” is getting everyone

You're sicker than you think

"Lady, your anxiety is showing (over a

coexisting depression)" The ad, both sexist and ageist,

suggests the woman needs the antidepressant 

If you are "talking too fast," "spending out of control," "sleeping less," "flying off the handle" and "buying things you don't need," you could be suffering from bipolar disorder said the ads, which appeared in magazines like People.

And here you thought it was the coffee.

How the “BIG P” is getting everyone

Your kid is sick. Ads don't just convince people they're in need of new drugs, but also that their kids may be, too. And it's been going on for decades.

“In 2009, researchers reported that kids are more likely to die sudden deaths while taking them and the American Heart Association recommends electrocardiograms (ECGs) before kids take them. And yet, combined sales of ADHD drugs continue to grow from $4.05 billion to $7.42 billion in 2010.

It shows kids were being overmedicated, thirdy years ago, kids were given the antipsychotic Thorazine for their "hyperactivity," "hostility," sleep problems and even for vomiting. Picky eaters and kids who wet the bed were given tranquillizers. Kids with tics, stuttering and school phobia were given the tranquillizer Miltown.  

How the “BIG P” is getting everyone

Be like me, and can your beer do this?

"Can Your Beer Do This?" Miller Lite campaign of the 1990s, came back to life to sell the antidepressant Wellbutrin XR. In a glossy, color magazine ad, a young man rows his girlfriend on a scenic lake and lists the benefits of his Wellbutrin XR.

"Can your medicine do all that?" he asks. Are advertisements, Wellbutrin XR, in

competition with Beer companies? This is ridiculous, just look at what Big Pharma has done to society.

How the “BIG P” is getting everyone

One kind of ad you won't see anymore

“More than a decade of animal research on various animal species has suggested that Librium (chlordiazepozxide HCI) exerts its principal effects on certain key areas of the limbic system”

In drug development, millions of animals die to prove a drug's "safety."

Today’s consumers wouldn't tolerate ads like these. (Or the experiments behind them.) 

More $$ for Pharma?

Pharma is investing more money on promotions each year.

These promotions make “Big Pharma” the increase in money flow.

Promotion v. Research

“The researchers’ estimate is based on the systematic collection of data directly from the industry and doctors during 2004, which shows the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spent 24.4% of the sales dollar on promotion, versus 13.4% for research and development, as a percentage of US domestic sales of US$235.4 billion”

United States is the only country in which information is available for all of the major promotion categories, and it is also the largest market for pharmaceuticals in the world, representing approximately 43% of global sales and global promotion expenditures.

Regulate the price of drugs

Not letting a “Me Too” drug price go up The pricing of the “Me Too” drugs goes up

annual because of the research and the promotion of the drug.

If we regulate the price of the “Me Too” drugs then it would bring the price of all drugs down.

It will force the price of drugs to go down. Pharma will then be force to regulate its prices.

People advocate for YOURselves!

No “Free Lunches” Find a medical doctor who has taken a “The

Pledge” in your area. This pledge show that the doctor will only would at a

drug-free company and take nothing free from the drug companies.

Signing this pledge insures that your doctor isn’t falling for the Big Pharma advertisements.

By prescribing why they think is souly best for you.

http://www.nofreelunch.org/medstudents.htm

PEOPLE ADVOCATE for YOURSELFS!

Finding out REAL drug facts IF you don’t know anything about a drug, research and go to a

couple of doctors. Don’t always take your doctors opinion! Never take a “Me Too” drug!

Without correct research and understanding of the medicine you are about to take. It can be life treating and your health insurance will not cover you if you become ill from it.

DON’T fall for drug advertisements The drug commercials can mislead the consumers to think they

have issues they never have had. Don’t fall for these advertisements, you can become over

prescribed and turn into a zombie. You could also have permit side effects that can change your life

forever.

DON’T let a doctor over prescribe you!

Works Cited

http://disabledfeminists.com/2010/12/09/5-ridiculous-big-pharma-ads/

http://www.alternet.org/health/153677/4_Creepy_Ways_Big_Pharma_Peddles_its_Drugs/?page=entire

http://madelynsmith.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/big-pharma-and-consumer-confusion-are-we-overmedicated/

Works Cited

http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/topics/ip/en/Me-tooDrugs_Hollis1.pdf

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Me-Too-Drug-Rip-Off-by-Dr-Stuart-Jeanne-B-110514-761.html

http://www.propublica.org/article/profiles-of-the-top-earners-in-dollar-for-docs

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2000.08014.x/full