From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received
a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this
blog…
Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast
cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites,
journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and
share them with you. Today: http://io9.gizmodo.com/5853356/sick-of-pharmaceutical-ads-heres-why-they-wont-go-away,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/03/16/prescription-drug-costs-up-tv-ads/99203878/
Recently, I saw
this commercial on TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFpSmeSYydM
It was advertising
Neulasta – the drug my wife was given after her aggressive chemo treatments.
Most of you have
noticed that in recent years, prescription drug ads have started popping up on
TV. In fact, they are doing MORE than just “popping up”. According to the
article I referenced above, there are “80 drug commercials every hour of every
day on television.” Really? Now, I’m sure that includes Aleve, Bayer, and the
host of others, like Prevagen (which
supposedly increases memory retention in adults (and which is, sadly, seems to
be aimed specifically at patients and family of Alzheimer’s patients). However,
how many of us are getting tired of the Humira – which can, apparently, treat
ulcerative colitis, plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s Disease?
I see THAT one constantly!
Also, the multiple
alternatives to the diabetic injections my wife took of Lantis – Toujeo, touting
how fabulous it is compared to the first one. There ARE other versions of
insulin – 37 of them here (https://www.drugs.com/drug-class/insulin.html).
What the fart? Why
would they do this? The answer is very simple: $$$MONEY$$$.
According to this
article, which was written six years ago, “For every dollar spent on ads for
drugs, over four dollars in retail sales are garnered. A May 2011 study showed
that new drugs that feature direct-to-consumer advertising are prescribed nine
times more than their new counterparts that lack consumer advertising.”
Currently: “In
2012, spending for pharmaceutical TV ads was the 12th-largest category. By last
year [2016], drug ads were sixth…” As well: “In 2016, the top three ads based
on total spending were Lyrica, with
$313 million in spending; rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira at $303 million; and Eliquis,
a treatment for a type of heart arrhythmia, at $186 million, according to
Kantar.”
While the drug
lobby argues that it’s “educating consumers”, I have no doubt that they are
giggling behind their hands while reviewing their bank deposits on their
laptops at night in their multi-million dollar mansions…I suspect that while
Congress battles itself over health care programs, the Health Care Industry is
doubled over in hysterical laughter at their cleverness in shifting the focus
off of them and to the evils of being Republican or being Democrat.
“The cost of Lyrica…is about $400 for 60 capsules,
for example. Critics say the ads encourage patients to ask their doctors for
expensive, often marginal — and sometimes inappropriate — drugs that are
fueling spiraling health care spending.”
We all know
exactly what happened to drug companies who hiked the cost of the pen-delivered
epinephrine (https://www.consumerreports.org/drug-prices/epipen-alternative-that-costs-just-10-dollars/),
right?
Nothing. The story
disappeared from the news as soon as the Democrats and Republicans started
fighting about health care. And South Korea. And terrorism…strange, that, eh?
How about Martin
Shkreli? He’s NOT being tried for hiking the price of an AIDS treatment drug
from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill (paid for by insurance companies who then
hiking insurance premiums…); he’s going to go to prison for defrauding his
ALREADY fabulously wealthy investors. Not REAL people, but the glitzy-fritzy
Rodeo Drive set. NOT for allowing those disgusting AIDS patients to die, but
for making his investors have to dig out a bit more pocket change for that
pearl-handled, battery-powered, mini-Maserati for the grammar school graduate…
Does this disgust
you as much as it does me? I have no trouble with funding the research that
CREATES new and effective drugs. I have all kinds of trouble with the
Top-Of-The-Heap executives who profit while riding on the backs of normal
people who have normal jobs in the companies that produce these drugs.
You know what I’m
gonna do about it?
Continue to pay.
Continue to watch TV. Pray that Jesus comes to take us Home soon…
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