Disease Mongering: Exploiting Sickness by Big Pharmaceuticals

The global pharmaceuticals market is a unique, dynamic, and thriving industry. It is an industry that prospers on the mentally and/or physically sick by developing, producing, and marketing various medications. Due to an ever-increasing societal culture that has normalized the consumption of drugs for health and everyday problems, the pharmaceutical industry has flourished. According to the World Health Organization (World Heath Organization; WHO, 2016), the 10 largest drugs companies control over one-third of the pharmaceutical market, in which the top firms earned upwards of 10 billion dollars annually. These large pharmaceutical firms have earned their revenues by selling sickness to the masses, as they are “actively involved in sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribers and consumers” (Moynihan, Heath, & Henry, 2002). They use their power and expertise to medicalize everyday life. Moynihan, Heath, and Henry (2002) describe this over medicalization as disease mongering, where pharmaceutical companies turn

Of these wants and needs it, optimal health status is highly desired. The objective of the pharmaceutical industry is to create medications that help maintain and promote health for a variety of illnesses and disabilities. This business is very lucrative - as long there are people, there will be a demand for health goods and services. Though there is a demand and need for these goods, it does not mean there is equal access. The pharmaceutical industry is one of allocative inefficiency and distributional inequity; the pharmaceutical market holds traits closest to an oligopoly, and pharmaceutical goods tend to be unfairly distributed. The pharmaceutical market structure closely resembles an oligopoly because the top 10 largest companies control one-third of the