The Buffalo

You probably think your doctor is prescribing you medication you actually need. You have to believe most of the time doctors are doing the right thing for the benefit of your health. Prescription drugs are big business run by big corporations. Health insurance is big business run by corporations. Therefore, your health is big business that can result in big profits for these corporations. If you watch TV, all you see nowadays is a tremendous amount of commercials for prescription drugs. It wasn’t like this a few years ago. From an interview on Bill Moyers Journal, New York Times reporter Melody Petersen describes drug companies:

“as an industry whose core drive is profit, and one that has insinuated itself, through money, into every level of drug research.

Petersen states,

‘I actually thought that they were a lot about science. That’s what they tell the public. They are all about science and discovering new drugs. But as I started to follow their daily activities and talk to executives, I learned that really it was marketing that drove them.’

According to Petersen, the rewards have been large. America has become the top consumer of prescription drugs in the world, with nearly 65% of the population on physician-prescribed medication. In 2005, Americans spent $250 billion dollars on such drugs. This consumption made pharmaceuticals the most profitable business sector in America from 1995-2002.

‘With their hoards of cash, the companies have readily handed money to patient groups, hospitals, universities, medical schools, physician societies, government agencies, and just about any organization they want on their side. […] The industry’s cash-filled coffers have given it a stranglehold on medical science. […] We’ve come to a time when decisions on how to treat a disease have as great a chance of being hatched in a corporate marketing department as by a group of independent doctors working to improve the public’s health. In too many, cases, whether a medicine helps or harms a patient has become secondary to how much it will bring shareholders in profits,’ Petersen says.”

Melody Petersen has written a book on the subject, OUR DAILY MEDS: HOW THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES TRANSFORMED THEMSELVES INTO SLICK MARKETING MACHINES AND HOOKED THE NATION ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS. Next time you go to your doctor and s/he suggests you start taking a prescription drug make sure you ask a lot of questions. Do some research. Check out Petersen’s full video interview and transcript here.