The head of Merck, one of the world's largest drug companies, Henry Gadsden told fortune magazine thirty years ago that he wanted Merck to become more similar to companies such as Wrigley's chewing gum. He said to make drugs for a healthy person has been his dream for years so that Merck could "sell to everyone". Today, Gadsden's dream has become a reality, and marketing to the healthy now is the driving force behind one of the most profitable industries in the world. Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness by using their dominating persuasion in the world of medical science. Old conditions are expanded, new ones created, and markets for medication grow even larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Common examples of this can be seen when runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have attention deficit disorder. These advertisers and marketers recently are labeling people with high cholesterol or low bone density "at risk" of a disease in itself. This book, Selling Sickness: How the World's Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients, shows how the expanding boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold of treatments is creating millions of new patients. As a direct outcome of this, billions of dollars worth of profits are going to pharmaceutical corporations. This change may revolutionize the health-care systems world wide. As more and more of everyday lives become medical, and people's perspectives are being skewed the drug industry becomes closer to the concept "selling to everyone". Selling Sickness reveals the marketing techniques of the world's biggest and most powerful drug companies. These industries are now aggressively targeting the healthy and well households and individuals throughout the world. Promotional campaigns are being used to exploit some of human's deepest fears: death, illness, and disease. The $500 billion pharmaceutical industry is practically changing what it means to be human. Pharmaceutical companies have been rightfully rewarded for saving millions of lives and reducing suffering, but this book argues that the lines are being crossed from reaching from the ill to merchandise to the healthy. At this day in age, when the average lifespan has been lengthened and people are enjoying healthier more vital lives, intense advertising and "awareness-rising" campaigns are turning the worried well into the worried sick.
While some diseases are hereditary, most are preventable, But it’s hard to prevent a disease when companies such as Nestlé, Mondelez, and PepsiCo are increasing the levels of sugar, salt, fat, and flavor to products like soft drinks, candy, and cured meats. Food science research has shown that these types of products can stimulate neural circuits similar to those that are stimulated in cases of drug addiction. (Tempels, Verweij and Blok, 2017). In order for those companies to sell as many products as they can they prey on Americans and people around the world disregarding what their products may do to their health? Advertisements from these companies tempt people to give in and buy products they don’t need to eat. Promoting diabetes prevention or obesity prevention would be more successful if there weren’t so many temptations standing in the way of it
Those who are observing the concerns of medicalization have brought up the fact that the pharmaceutical industry can and will increase the preventive measures for health care and affect many. Obesity is one of the most deadly public health crises of the 21st century. Globally, at least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese [24]. In the United States, it’s the second leading cause of preventable death (WHO,
Abramsons points are well taken, and it truly is a shame that the medical industry has become a business. In my opinion, if the pharmaceutical industry was taken out of the hands of the capitalist marketplace and given the to the government, it would become less of a business. Prescription drugs are not ordinary consumer goods; they are products that can ultimately save lives. If a money-oriented company controls these products, it is inevitable selling the drug would become a greater priority than actually creating a beneficial drug. Which as a result, will to the creation many well-marketed yet ineffective
In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs, the marketing behind pills, and the use of media outlets.
In America today, many people are in need of medical help. In fact,the Federal Trade Commission estimates that 75% of the population complain of physical problems (Federal Trade Commission 9). They complain, for example, of fatigue, colds, headaches, and countless other "ailments." When these symptoms strike, 65% purchase over-the counter, or OTC, drugs. In order to take advantage of this demand, five billion dollars is spent by the pharmaceutical industry on marketing each year . This marketing, usually in the form of advert...
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising refers to one of the marketing strategies in a pharmaceutical industry. As pharmaceutical products directly affect people's lives and health, many industrialized countries ban DTC advertisements; the United States and New Zealand are the only industrialized countries that allow DTC advertising of prescription medicines. However, there is a controversy over whether DTC advertising, as one of the most effective forms of mass communication, should be more regulated than it is now. This debate is ongoing. This research argument, however, contends that people need stronger regulations against many DTC advertisements in the pharmaceutical industry because they are usually manipulative and misleading to people.
The United States of America accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, yet as a nation, we devour over 50% of the world’s pharmaceutical medication and around 80% of the world’s prescription narcotics (American Addict). The increasing demand for prescription medication in America has evoked a national health crisis in which the government and big business benefit at the expense of the American public.
The percentages of the two surveys prove that a greater percentage of doctors believe that prescription drug ads misinform patients. These ads misinform patients, encourage over-medication, and pressure doctors and medical providers. The counter side states that prescription drug ads educate patients, encourage the correct usage of drugs, and cause patients to ask their doctors about possible treatments. Both sides have examples and evidence, but the cons of prescription drug ads are stronger.
Why do consumers purchase specific drugs for various ailments, sicknesses or diseases they might have? Why do physicians prescribe certain drugs over competitive drugs that may be available to the public? Why is it that most of us can easily name specific drugs that fit the many ailments of today’s society? On the surface the answer might be as simple as good TV advertising or radio commercials or even internet adds. The truth of matter is the major pharmaceutical manufacturers own the patents on these drugs and this gives them all of the marketing budget and muscle they need to promote the drug and control the pricing. The incentives for larger pharmaceutical companies are very enticing and as a result, they don’t mind spending the time in clinical trials and patent courts to get their drugs approved. Some will even get patents on the process by which the drug is manufactured, ensuring that no competitor can steal the drug or the process. This protects their large financial investment and nearly guarantees a large return for their investors. Many consumer rights groups claim this is nothing more than legalizing monopolies for the biggest manufacturers.
“Impure Science” proves definitively how consumers, armed with thorough knowledge, can influence public health policy, budget funding, and even academic research toward their own goals in combating the diseases that threaten their lives.
3Walker, Hugh: Market Power and Price levels in the Ethical Drug Industry; Indiana University Press, 1971, P 25.
It is the profits rather than the need of the world that drives the market, as Cahill points out. She laments that while in the 1960-1970 's theologic bioethicists influenced the field of bioethics, nowadays the ethical discourse involving Christian narrative gets" thinner and thinner," shifting away toward more secular and liberal views. As theologians are welcomed to partake in the ethical debates, their voices and opinions are rarely considered in policy making. Such situation causes the current trend amongst health care institutions,medical-surgical companies, and research labs, to focus on financial gain rather than ways to deliver health care to those who needed it the most. It is the consumers with the most "buying power" that have at their disposal the latest medical treatment, equipment, technologies, and medications while millions around the world lack the most basics of needs, such as clean water, food, shelter, education as well as the basic health care. Cahill fears that medical companies seeking profits will neglect or stop altogether to produce medications that are bringing low profits. Medications that are necessary to treat prevalent in the third- world countries or if you prefer the developing countries diseases, such as Dysentery, Cholera, Malaria, Rabies, Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, even warms, to name a
In recent years’ health reform has been a driving force in the United States political system. If you watch the news, you will understand how citizens, the government, or the economy are or might be affected by some sort of change in medical regulation. One of these hot topic issues is the cost of prescription drugs. Every major drug market besides the United States regulates the price of drugs in some way (Abbott and Vernon). By the United States not doing so, many believe it opens consumers up to being exploited by large pharmaceutical companies.
Since its humble beginning as a small drugstore, Merck has placed a large amount of importance on improving the health and well-being of its customers. As drug patents expire and genetic forms of their top products become available, Merck’s strategy is to do the unexpected; instead of raising the price of their older products in favor of patent protected new drugs, Merck focuses on reducing their cost in order to better compete with their generic counterparts. Additionally, Merck’s plan for growth now encompasses a much more aggressive pursuit of new drugs in their pipeline through extensive research. Merck became the second largest health care company in the world after the merger with Schering-Plough in 2009 and has contributed great discoveries like the first cervical cancer vaccine and great resources like the Merck Manuals which are utilized as a source of information to doctors, scientists and consumers worldwide .
Fort, M. M., & Oscar, G. (2004). Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health. Cambridge: South End Press.