Drug Companies Enjoy An Unethical Relationship With Doctors And Politicians
By Dave Gibson (12/16/04)
With prescription drug prices rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, the drug industry is being subjected to more scrutiny than ever before. The results have been more than troubling. As with all corruption though, it exists because we the people allow it to exist.
From 1997 to 2001, U.S. drug sales rose 20 percent each year. In fact, one out of every six dollars spent in the U.S., is spent on prescription drugs. Two of the most-prescribed drugs are the anti-depressant Paxil (with sales of $1.4 billion in 2000) and the antibiotic Cipro (with sales of $1 billion in 2000). Both drugs are incredibly profitable.
The drug industry attempts to justify their obscene profits by claiming to spend most of the money on research and development. However, that is simply a lie. The health care advocacy organization Families USA has recently reported that the drug industry on average, spends at least twice as much on marketing as they do on R & D.
Families USA discovered that in 2000, Merck & Co. spent 15 percent of their total profits on marketing, while only devoting six percent to the development of new drugs. The same study showed that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. spent a whopping 30 percent of their annual revenue in 2000 on marketing, and only spent 11 percent on R & D.
It would seem that the days of breakthrough medical discoveries are gone. It is now all about profit-making.
The last major medical discovery was the polio vaccine. Dr. Jonas Salk made the discovery in 1955. For the last 50 years, the U.S. medical community and the drug industry have chosen to treat symptoms rather than the disease itself.
It is time for American consumers to ask tough questions. We must question our elected officials as well as our doctors, both benefit from the tremendous profits being raked in by the drug industry.
The drug sales reps provide office supplies, free lunches, tickets to sporting events, and much more to doctors and their staff. Doctors in turn, almost always prescribe the newer, higher-priced drugs even if an older and cheaper drug will produce the same results.
Thanks to Congress, the time an exclusive patent (before a drug goes into generic production) is enjoyed by a drug manufacturer continues to lengthen. During the mid 1980's, companies retained their patent on new drugs for an average of eight years. By the late 1990's, that time had increased to more than 15 years. Drug manufacturers are among the top contributors to U.S. Congressmen and Senators.
Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) who is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, counts drug manufacturers Eli Lilly and Allergan as his top two campaign contributors. Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) received $260,000 from the drug industry during the 1999-2000 campaign season.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the drug industry paid out more than $26 million in 1999-2000 to U.S. Congressional candidates. Money-hungry politicians both Republican and Democrat alike, will never be willing to take on the pharmaceutical industry.
Elderly Americans, unable to afford their prescriptions have turned to purchasing their drugs from other countries such as Canada. The FDA of course, has been attempting to discourage U.S. patients from buying their drugs anywhere other than the U.S. The FDA claims that drugs imported from Canada are unsafe.
Despite FDA warnings, there has never been a single incident of a counterfeit drug being sent from Canada to a patient residing in the United States. The FDA claims that the number of cases in which bogus drugs were mailed to U.S. citizens from other countries, tripled from 2000 to 2003. While that is actually true, the FDA fails to advertise the fact that reports of counterfeit imports only rose from six cases in 2000 to 22 in 2003. That's right, there were only 22 reported cases of counterfeit drugs received by U.S. consumers from overseas companies last year!
Until U.S. drug prices become affordable once again, we should be able to purchase drugs from Canada. Almost all goods purchased by American consumers are manufactured overseas. Why not add prescription drugs to the list?
The drug reps depend on the doctors, who are then rewarded for their loyalty. The politicians and the drug manufacturers depend upon one another, the former for cash and the latter for protection.
As usual, the American consumer is at the bottom of the food-chain. Even when our lives hang in the balance.
(Printer friendly version) Email: Dave Gibson
