Pushing drugs with direct to comsumer - Like DDT, DTC by Rx is the next Big Tobacco

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM

Did you know that in most foreign countries drug companies are not allowed to advertise directly to patient consumers?

Melody Petersen is an Iowa author who has written, OUR DAILY MEDS: HOW THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES TRANSFORMED THEMSELVES INTO SLICK MARKETING MACHINES AND HOOKED THE NATION ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS.  The book explores the area of pharmaceutical companies as marketing machine using DTC to increase the bottom line.

The book is getting good reviews from the likes of the Bill Moyers Journal, The New York Times, Public Citizen and The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide. You can purchase the book at Amazon or at Barnes and Noble.

Watch the Moyers Journal video interview of Melody or the podcast.

The problem, according to Petersen, is not that medicine is bad, it's that the drug industry has lost its way.                               - Bill Moyers Journal

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH DIRECT MARKETING TO PATIENT CONSUMERS

The motive for profits to pump up executive pay is a greater goal than practicing good medicine and making good Rx decisions based on the practice of medicine.  Like DDT, DCT is passed on from generation to generation. You think I'm exaggerating? Keep reading.

IS DIRECT MARKETING PROFITABLE?

You be the judge. Senator Byron Dorgan has several charts on his website comparing the cost of several drugs and what patients pay in the U.S. versus Canada. The markup to U.S. consumers is between 31% and 128%.  

Tale of the cash register tape:

Zyprexa to treat depression $556.54 for U.S. patients but only $244.56 in Canada.

Prevacid, ulcers, $419.96 versus $213.36.

Lipitor, cholesterol, $321.30 versus $164.34.

See the chart for other drugs.  

Has DTC been used before in an unhealthy way?

This somehow reminds me of something from our past.  What could it be? So when it comes to drugs is Big Pharma the voice of reason? As Ricky Ricardo would say, “Lucy, you got some splaining to do!”

What might an Rx-Man look and sound like?

Could there be a Kool-menthol-Lipitor commercial?

If paid enough might your doctor, the “man of medicine” in your life be involved with DTC?

Certainly DTC wouldn't be used to sell drugs to our kids, would they? 

Can we trust the research, when DTC is the driving force?

They’d never use sitcoms to push drugs using DTC, would they? Family shows like Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore or the Beverly Hillbillies  and Granny would never be used for DTC, would they?

MEET THE AUTHOR

Ms. Petersen will discuss her book (and sign if you wish) at the Fall Winter Festival, 6:30 PM, Monday, Central Library, 1000 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa.

Melody Petersen - Melody Petersen wrote about the pharmaceutical industry for four years as a reporter for THE NEW YORK TIMES. She won a Gerald Loeb Award in 1997, one of the highest awards for business journalism.