Shocking Facts About the Pharmaceutical Industry
Posted by Dr. Mercola | April 19 2008
Big drug companies have been accused of putting profits
above patients, spinning false PR campaigns and more. Here are some of the most
shocking facts about the pharmaceutical industry.
The price of drugs is increasing faster than anything else
a patient pays for: The prices of the most heavily prescribed drugs are
routinely jacked up, sometimes several times a year. Some medications have a
mark-up of 1,000 percent over the cost of their ingredients.
Your doctor may have an ulterior motive behind your
prescription: Drug reps often give gifts to convince doctors to
prescribe the medications that they represent. These drug reps usually have no
medical or science education.
Pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than
research: Almost twice as much!
Guilty of Medicare fraud:
Pharmaceutical companies are being tried in federal courts as a result of their
exploitation of Medicare. AstraZeneca had to pay more than $340 million in
penalties for coaching doctors to cheat Medicare.
The combined wealth of the top 5 pharmaceutical companies
outweigh GNP of sub-Saharan Africa: In fact, the
combined worth of the world’s top five drug companies is twice the combined GNP
of that entire region.
Americans pay more for prescription meds than anyone else
in the world: $200 billion in 2002 alone.
"New" Drugs aren‘t really new:
Two-thirds of “new” prescription drugs are identical to existing drugs or
modified versions of them.
Drug companies are taking advantage of underdeveloped
countries to perform clinical trials: In developing
countries, government oversight is more lax.
For more shocking facts, click the link below.
Sources:
Nursing
Online Education Database March 27, 2008
According to
Corporate Watch,
Fortune magazine has declared the world’s biggest drug company, Pfizer the
“fifth-best wealth-creator” in America.
The question is: who benefits from this “creation of
wealth”? It’s certainly not the Americans who pay a thousand percent markup for
the drugs Pfizer pumps out.
Americans pay far more for their drugs than any other
nation. Take this, for example: according to PricewaterhouseCoopers fascinating
report,
Pharma 2020: The Vision, India spends $420 per diabetic patient per year.
The U.S., in comparison, spends an average of $10,844 per year per patient.
Their report also states:
“The current pharmaceutical industry business model is
both economically unsustainable and operationally incapable of acting quickly
enough to produce the types of innovative treatments demanded by global markets.
In order to make the most of these future growth opportunities, the industry
must fundamentally change the way it operates.
Some of the major changes PwC anticipates for the industry
are:
·
Health
care will shift in focus from treatment to prevention.
·
Pharmaceutical companies will provide total health care packages.
·
The
current linear phase research & development process will give way to in-life
testing and live licensing, in collaboration with regulators and health care
providers.
·
The
traditional blockbuster sales model will disappear.
·
The
supply chain function will become revenue generating as it becomes integral to
the health care package and enables access to new channels.
·
More
sophisticated direct-to-consumer distribution channels will diminish the role of
wholesalers.
Now, some of this has an encouraging ring to it, such as
shifting the focus from treatment to prevention. Other “predictions” are far
more menacing, including the development of more sophisticated
direct-to-consumer distribution channels for drugs.
People are Waking Up to the Truth About Health
Fortunately, more people are waking up to the illusion and
deception of the drug industry as a whole, and starting to clearly see the
truth. Last year’s PricewaterhouseCoopers' report cited a declining trust in the
reputation of the mega-pharmaceuticals.
The main reason is because the public is absolutely right
in their estimation that drug companies manipulate or suppress negative clinical
trials, promote their toxic products for unapproved uses, and focus on
developing drugs that are no better than older ones.
This is yet another indication that my vision to
reconfigure and reform the deadly state of conventional health care in America
is getting closer to becoming a reality. So keep up the good work folks. But
please be aware, the battle has merely begun… Each of the 25 facts listed in the
article above constitutes a problem within the system that needs to be changed
or abolished.
Physicians must also, en masse, come to the realization
that what they are doing is going nowhere. This may be one of the most difficult
areas to change, as the pharmaceutical industry has devised a highly effective
system of indoctrination and very specific psychological techniques to bamboozle
physicians. Doctors usually believe they are immune to persuasion tactics, and
drug reps know just how important it is to maintain that illusion – which is why
it works so well.
Consider for a moment the in-depth report published in
both The New England Journal of Medicine and PLoS Medicine, which
admitted that pharmaceutical sales reps are trained in tactics that are on par
with some of the most potent brainwashing techniques used throughout the world!
The idea that reps provide some kind of valuable,
informative service to physicians is total fiction, created and
perpetuated by the drug industry, to keep this deadly, but profitable, scheme
going.
Poison For Profit
Another shocking fact that few consider is that virtually
every major pharmaceutical company has a corresponding branch that creates
the toxins and poisons that contribute to the chronic diseases their drugs
and medical devices treat.
So these huge transnational companies profit not only from
the sale of products such as pesticides, herbicides and GM crops, but also from
the symptoms and chronic illnesses that they can trigger.
The vast majority of chemicals found in pesticides and
other products undergo little or no testing for chronic, low level exposures and
for chronic health effects, effectively creating a circle of destruction and
double profits.
Below is a list of such chem/pharm companies:
|
Chemical Division |
Pharmaceutical Division |
|
Aventis
(herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, GM food) |
Aventis Pharma |
|
Monsanto
(herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, GM food) |
Pharmacia |
|
BASF
(herbicides, fungicides, pesticides) |
BASF
Pharmaceuticals |
|
Merck
Research Company
(precursors for pesticides and neurotoxins) |
Merck |
|
Dow
Chemical
(industrial chemicals and pharmaceuticals) |
Dow
Pharmaceuticals |
Make no mistake about it. The drug companies are
incredibly powerful, and overcoming their influence over your life will take a
mammoth effort.
But there are concrete steps you can take to combat the
drug companies' self-interest, save yourself loads of money, and improve your
health so you can avoid unnecessary drugs in the first place.
Ten Steps to Reduce Your Pharmaceutical Expenses
Now
Take charge of your own health now instead of handing it
over to the drug companies.
How do you do that?
You can start by using the Internet to locate non-drug
alternatives to your health challenges. Many start with my site as it has more
than 150,000 pages to help you understand more about how you can improve your
health without drugs or surgery, through simple lifestyle modifications.
These are the basic tenets of optimal health that have
always remained permanent truths, regardless of what marvels modern science
comes up with next:
1.
Eat a healthy diet that’s right for your nutritional type
(paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down)
2.
Drink plenty of clean water
3.
Manage your stress
4.
Exercise
5.
Get plenty of appropriate sun exposure
6.
Limit toxin exposure
7.
Consume healthy fat
8.
Eat plenty of raw food
9.
Optimize insulin and leptin levels
10.
Get plenty of sleep
If you want to further understand how corporations and
government manipulate science and the media by preying upon the public trust --
and how to protect yourself -- I highly recommend the book "Trust Us, We're
Experts."
One of the primary purposes of Mercola.com is to provide
you with the insight to protect and defend yourself from these major corporate
interests (as well as the government they've purchased). I’ve committed myself
to providing you with practical and straightforward advice and suggestions on
how to optimize your body to prevent disease, reach your optimal weight, and
live longer.
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