Prescribing Profits: Big Pharma's Reign over America's Health

Due to the corporate competition between large pharmaceutical companies and their purpose as a business to “make money,” modern medicine is often characterized by the overuse of chemical drugs. Under current US law, it is perfectly legal to pay doctors to promote drugs. Big Pharma, the collective group of big pharmaceutical companies, continues to pay billions of dollars to doctors promoting and prescribing their drugs. The common assumption when one goes to the doctor is that he or she is going to get the best medication to cure his or her illness or disease. Sometimes, the medicine fixes the problem in the short term, but it does not target the underlying cause. On top of this, the drugs may aim to fix one problem but can cause unwanted side effects in the process. This creates the never-ending cycle of dependency on chemical drugs as patients are often prescribed more drugs to deal with the new problems that are created.

The fact that the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers is unreal to me. Through the Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communication (DDMAC), the FDA guarantee that all prescription drug promotion provides truthful, balanced, and accurate information (FDA, 2010); alongside with the risk the drug has to

Bell continued to interview a journalist named Greg Critser, who authored the book “Generation RX,” which is about the relationship between America and pharmaceuticals. He exclaims that drug companies advertise their product so much that it internalizes inside individuals that the drugs they’re selling are good and not poison, then he continued where the drug is somewhat of a poison where it kills another thing off to benefit another. Pharmaceutical companies also lobby the political side of their ambitions to cover up the negative side of their

Most countries don't allow drug companies to advertise directly to patients. In the United States, however, direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs is completely legal. The article "Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?" questions the validity of this decision and provides several different examples of the advantages and disadvantages of DTC prescription drug ads. There are both positives and negatives associated with the advertising of prescription drugs.

Imagine this: you are tragically diagnosed with a chronic life-threatening illness. Your only hope to survive is through medication to treat your disorder. The medicine is pricy but you can work out the costs each month. One day, you go to fill your prescriptions and realize the cost of a $13 pill has jumped to an astounding $750. You need this patented medication to survive and to afford it you end up losing your home, filing for bankruptcy, and sleeping in your car. This story sounds fictional but it is the reality for many Americans who can no longer afford their grossly overpriced medications.

As we advance in our healthcare system and continue to find cure for the deadly diseases we are also faced with prescription drug prices rising much faster than they were a few years back. Drug prices are increasing at an unmaintainable rate without any sign of reduction. People who are heavily affected by this rise are mostly elderly citizens and also the poor of this country because they can barely afford these expenses. These people either have no money to pay for their copays or no health insurances at all.

In the modern age of technological and medical advancements such as organ transplants and robotic limbs, Americans have developed unrealistic expectations about prescription drugs. The false belief that the right pill in the right dosage can cure all has led to a national epidemic: over prescription. Since the 1970s, the average American’s expenditure on prescription drugs has doubled because not only are new treatments for almost every ailment now available, but they are also aggressively advertised on television, the internet, and social media. At the same time that the American population confronts health issues associated with rising age, obesity, and stress levels, prescription drugs promise a quick fix for everything from depression to acne to insomnia leading to a one pill fix all.

There are many direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs. On television, magazines, radio etc, you see the most recent advertisements for prescription drugs. After some people see the advertisements they soon rush over to their doctor and their illness and life would be perfectly pain and stress free. Making the public conscious of options for treatment is not a bad thing. But these false advertisements are misleading consumers onto unnecessary treatment.

Annually, the US spends $300 billion dollars on pharmaceutical drugs. This is due to the over-diagnosing of certain conditions. Everyday, Americans are exposed to an enormous amount of advertisements for medications of all kinds. For example, 1 in 10 Americans are taking

On average, approximately 650,000 opioid prescription are written every day. In addition, each day 78 Americans die from an opioid-related overdose. (The opioid epidemic, 2016). Doctors undoubtedly play a big role in our opioid problem. As previously mentioned, the pharmaceutical companies are big reason for this. In addition, doctors just don’t want to deal with drug abuse problems, so they ignore them. Anna Lembke says, “It's something that a lot of doctors avoid, which is also why a lot of doctors don't even ask their patients about substance abuse problems, because they just don't want to go there. They don't want to have to deal with the tension that arises in the interaction, in the moment when they are talking about something that the

The prescription drug epidemic has claimed thousands of lives every year after the introduction of Oxycontin. In 2007, the Pharma Purdue admitted in federal court that Oxycontin was not a “safe drug” and has a potential for abuse, causing them a fine of 634 million dollars (Andrzejczyk 272). However, at the time, it was too late for the people who become addicted to Oxycontin or who died from overdosing. The prescription drug epidemic had been already well established across the country. People already saw or experienced the euphoria induced by prescription drug.

We in America tend to take medications for almost any problem we have, from headaches to gastrointestinal pain, to more serious chronic disorders such as depression and attention deficit disorder. While many of the uses of such medications may be necessary and legitimate, many are not, and due to this fact, many people become dependent on medications, mentally, and or physically. This problem is not simply the fault of the individual; in fact, the blame can also be placed upon the medical community, and the pharmaceutical companies who produce the drugs. How often can one turn on the television to see advertisements for Claritin, Aspirin, Pepto-Bismol, or even Zoloft or Ritalin? The pharmaceutical industry is motivated by monetary

Death by drug overdose is quickly becoming a leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing deaths from automobile accidents and firearm related deaths in 2013. Prior to the 1990’s, opioid medications were only used to treat severe pain, mostly pain due to severe accidents, surgery or cancer. This changed when Purdue Pharmaceuticals initiated an aggressive, misleading campaign for their new powerful opioid drug Oxycontin. Alleged to be a non-addictive wonder drug suitable for almost any type of pain, Oxycontin flooded the market. Pain management lobbyist, funded by the U.S. opioid manufacturers were able to convince the medical community to ease the restrictions on prescribing opioids. The use of opioids for commonplace ailments from

People all over the world, continue to be tendered prescription medication, which in many cases further complicate health issues with its myriad of side effects. In fact, statistics have shown that approximately 100,000 people around the world die as a result of prescription drugs annually (Smith, 2012). On the contrary, according

Prescription drug advertisements have a negative impact on Americans by causing them to become hypochondriacs in a certain way. A hypochondriac is someone who believes and becomes obsessed with the idea that they have a serious condition that was and is undiagnosed. This problem continues to have a negative affect because it can lead to unnecessarily prescribing. Patients are going into their doctors and they are requesting to be put on these drugs because of the great affects that they have heard that they do for them. In the article, Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising, the author states that in a study done over this and the results were that, when these request were made at about 40 percent of doctor visits and during this time more