Big Bucks, Big Pharma Notes PDF

Preview

Summary

Notes over "Big Bucks, Big Pharma" Documentary...

Description

● ● ● ● ● ● ●

●

●

● ●

●

●

●

Consumer advertising works Merck, GSK, Novartis, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson are leading companies in the world ○ Aka Big Pharma Most marketing targets doctors, pharmacists, health professionals bc they’re the ones that prescribe meds Pharma also targets patients directly and independently ‘96-’04 = industry spending on Direct to Consumer Advertising (DTC) increased over 500% Pharma tries to make brand identities for meds aka emotional bond between consumer and product In ads, there are compelling lifestyle portraits of people are living to the fullest thanks to pharma ○ You never see people suffering from the dz they’re supposed to be suffering from ○ These images/tones outweigh the list of symptoms that companies are required to say ○ Safety risks are not fully communicated Adverse drug reactions (reactions that happen even if meds are properly prescribed) are 5th leading cause of death in USA ○ Cause 100K deaths, 1.5 M Hospitalizations ○ Ex: Vioxx Withdrawal - arthritis drug may cause increased risk of heart attacks & strokes ■ What happens when a drug is over prescribed, over promoted, given to the wrong target patients ■ In 2000, more money was spent advertising Vioxx than Budweiser and Pepsi promotion PhRMA defends direct to consumer ads bc they “educate the public” and “get patients to doctors for treatment” Pharma is constantly making new drugs Companies don’t have to compare new drugs with old drugs to treat same condition, just have to compare new ones with a placebo (basically just shows that new med is better than nothing) Prescription drugs end up flooding the market bc of little govt regulation ○ Ex: large number of allergy meds now out ■ Claritin is most successful in this campaign ‘98=’04 - 14% of new drugs were actually new compounds, 8% were slightly improved, 78% of new drugs were actually old compounds (these are called me-too drugs) ○ Me-too drugs are easy and cheap to make ■ 1 Me-too = 1000 compounds to fight against; 1 novel one = 2000 compounds to fight against Pharma now focusing on lifestyle drugs that can be marketed to large numbers of people and expand the market ○ Ex: Lipitor (Pfeizer) - at time of documentary, was #1 selling drug in the world; a statin type to lower cholesterol; it’s a me-too drug, 4/6 similar statin drugs on market ○ Ex: Viagra ‘94 - $ 265 M went to advertising this med; in ‘04, same amount went to advertise erectile dysfunction drugs

Ex: Nexium (the purple pill) is basically the same thing as prilosec, company was going to lose the patent and thus $$, so they made nexium and marketed that even while they had control of prilosec; became #1 advertised med ■ $ Prilosec OTC < $ Generic Prilosec < Nexium If you stopped me-too market, you’d stop a good portion of promotional activities - medicalizing something that’s part of everyday life If you change definition of a dz, then you can have a bigger audience of consumers Big pharma starts to normalize even the most obscure health disorders and displays them as common Causes big increase of prescriptions bc people who are otherwise healthy, watch tv and see these ads and think that there’s something wrong with them Companies are always looking for new diseases to treat with old drugs bc patent life can be extended if another use for them is found; can help pharma to continue to advertise meds ○ SSRIs/Anti-depressants of Prozac variety were originally prescribed for MDD, but now also for GAD, OCD, Bulimia, Panic Disorder, PTSD, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder; have many symptoms ■ These drugs were prescribed to many children, don’t know if was used correctly (patient target); ● We don’t take the time to think about whether or not this really needs to be medicalized or is a normal thing or if there are other ways to deal with it ■ Ex: Paxil can now be prescribed for Social Anxiety Disorder; mostly thanks to stories placed in print media/television, wasn’t much of a big deal before this ● If you call shyness as Social Anxiety Disorder, then you increase target audience → medicalizing a normal emotion ■ Prozac’s reintroduction as Sarafem: now prescribed for premenstrual tension (Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder) but are still the same thing; costs 3x as much as generic Prozac Important to note that there are patients who really do suffer from these conditions (esp. mental) and that meds can help them; also important to note that these ads have created a large number of concerned people wondering if they have the problem Both patients and doctors are convinced to take lifelong drugs; we always look for ez pill ○ We don’t look at lifestyle issues, environmental issues, only talked about at individual social biology; ○ Pts should ask if there’s a generic or cheaper medicine for same condition ○ Patients need to be advocates for themselves, Worst Pill Best Pills ○

● ● ● ● ●

●

●

● ● ●

●

Pharma pushes meds at conferences and in journals 100 K reps visit hosp/docs offices and give items as a reminder of who they are/what they’re selling to pts and doctors A medical resident is most likely to have all branded items on their person if you were to check ○ A sign of promotion Doctors are receiving gifts which is a sign of relationship formation ○ There’s no budget ○ Doctors rn have little morale, sales people give them so much respect ■ First year students get small gifts and as time progresses they get much bigger ones like lunches and trips

●

●

● ●

● ● ● ●

● ●

Marketing materials = illegal, but if labeled as education, legal ○ Ex: can’t give kickbacks to doctors, but if you’re paying for them to educate others or for them to be educated, it’s not a kickback ○ Pharma heavily monitors those before and after promotion and pharma knows prescriptions will go up Free drug samples are most dangerous weapon for pharma ○ Pt sees med in tv ad, doc is ready to give meds ○ Always the most newest, most expensive product on the market Pharma needs doctors who prescribe their product and reps who “educate“ them or are trying to sell their product The more doctors meet with reps, the more legit they think the drug/info is, the more likely they’ll prescribe expensive meds (also inappropriate) PharmFree Campaign - pharmaceutical-free (belief: drug companies are needed, reps aren’t) ‘99 - No Free Lunch - helped to teach providers, public, med students to not accept gifts from pharma Major criticism for schools that have just accepted pharma’s promotions Pharma spends billions of dollars to protect/promote industry ○ Uses wealth to co-opt US Congress (has largest lobby), Administration, FDA ■ For FDA, there has been no oversight, so pharma and FDA are partners Matter of time for people to realize all of this and put pressure on Congress...