Is a book written by Melody Petersen, who is an investigative reporter who wrote about pharmaceutical companies. Her book is a disturbing revelation of what pharmaceutical companies and our entire healthcare system has become.
There is so much information in the book, but here are some interesting points:
- Prescription pills are estimated to kill approximately 270 people per day
- How drug companies actually create disease, such as “generalized anxiety disorder” and “overactive bladder” to create more demand and sales for their drug.
- How the public relations firm for Pfizer was able to urge producers of television show ER to put the drug “Aricept” in an episode to treat a patient with Alzheimers disease. By this show, 25 millions Americans had learned about the drug.
- The drugs companies spent millions of dollars on nice dinners and vacation trips for those doctors (and their families) who will potentially prescribe the medications.
- Many of the published studies are biased, misleading, or just plain wrong.
- Studies that do not support the drug company’s drug are often kept hidden.
- A story of an active, relatively healthy man with type 2 diabetes who had a wife and 4 children. He received a personalized, official-looking letter from the drug company Parke-Davis explaining a new product for diabetes called Rezulin. When he asked his doctor about it, the doctor didn’t know anything about the drug as it wasn’t on the market yet. When it finally came out, he was able to take the drug and then got very ill. The drug ruined his liver and he ended up receiving a liver transplant.
- A story of David Franklin, a scientist who applied for a position as a medical liaison when he couldn’t get a job in the laboratory. ”Yet his bosses seemed more excited about the initials behind his name, and the fact that he could be introduced as Dr. Franklin”. His job was to use his “doctor” title to gain access and trust to the local doctors to sell the drug Neurontin on false claims.
- How products such as Claritin and Celebrex, even though they are more expensive and not as effective as drugs that are currently on the market, by using aggressive marketing campaigns they are still able to make huge profits for drug companies.
- How drug companies place profit as a priority far above health, and how extreme this situation has become.
“We sometimes joke that when you’re doing a clinical trial, there are two possible disasters. The first disaster is if you kill people. The second disaster is if you cure them. The truly good drugs are the ones you can use chronically over a long, long time.”
– Alex Hittle, a biotech analyst at AG Edwards in St Louis
These points are just the tip of the iceberg as the book is filled with great information. For more info:
http://www.ourdailymedsthebook.com/
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