Spin and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Proudly Protecting Profits by Scaring You

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http://www.mercola.com/2003/jul/26/pharmaceuticals_spin.htm

 

Spin and the Pharmaceutical Industry:

Proudly Protecting Profits by Scaring You

 

 

By Brian W. Vaszily

Let's build a toy together. We'll call our toy the Spokesman for the

Pharmaceutically Intoxicated Nation, or " Spin " for short.

 

Every toy must have some purpose, and so we'll package Spin as " Defender of the

most responsible, caring, and profitable industry in the world, the

pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. " We'll design Spin as a wolf, but then

sew on sheep's clothing so as not to frighten anyone away with the mere truth.

 

Every toy these days must also have some gimmick, and here's the catch for Spin:

he'll talk. Now, he won't really say much of anything. In fact, he'll only be

programmed with a single phrase. But on an emotional level, where all the best

toys work, it will be one very effective phrase, creating greater dependency on

Spin by inciting fear about a world without him. Our Spokesman for the

Pharmaceutically Intoxicated Nation doll will, of course, be

critical-voice-activated, so that when anyone says anything that suggests the

pharmaceutical industry is corrupting versus aiding our nation's health, he

responds with this same very effective phrase:

 

" Well, if we did things any different than the way we're doing them, we'd have

no money to research and develop new drugs. And without new drugs, people would

have no way of treating all the disorders and diseases plaguing our world and

they'd all die. So let us keep doing things our way, and have a nice day. "

 

This is, of course, the same response, in more words or less, that real

spokespeople for drug manufacturers use over and over to shield their companies

from any criticism and demands for reform. So our Spin toy will be quite

lifelike, which is always appealing in a toy.

 

Test Marketing - Phase One

 

Let's say that someone with a moderate grasp on facts about the pharmaceutical

industry got her hands on a Spin doll and addressed it with a couple of the

facts she knew:

 

" Why is it that the amount we spend on drugs has increased by 15% a year for the

past several years - five times the rate of inflation -- but we aren't seeing

any correlation in improved health? I mean, a brand-name prescription cost an

average of $27 in 1990 but, by 2000, it jumped all the way to $65, far outpacing

inflation. What's going on here? "

 

" Well, " our voice-activated Spin doll would respond with a fixed smile on its

face, " if we did things any different than the way we're doing them, we'd have

no money to research and develop new drugs. And without new drugs, people would

have no way of treating all the disorders and diseases plaguing our world and

they'd all die. So let us keep doing things our way, and have a nice day. "

 

Alright then, what if someone with even more insight on the drug industry - say,

a Chief Financial Officer of a large company whose costs to provide adequate

health insurance to employees were reaching impossible heights, as is now the

case with may companies in the U.S. - could address the cuddly Spin doll with

his concerns:

 

" The U.S. spends nearly $5000 per capita per year on health, which is far more

than any other nation, and yet we're nowhere near the healthiest country on the

planet. Our average lifespan, for example, is way down at number 25 on the list

of all countries. And it's prescription drugs that are the fastest rising part

of this national healthcare expense, increasing from just 5.8% of all such costs

in 1993 to 10% today. They're projected to increase to 15% by 2011.

 

" Now, the drug companies keep saying that this massive increase in the sale of

pharmaceuticals is helping people, but with the rise in chronic diseases, the

overweight epidemic, our relatively low average lifespan, and the increase in

paid visits to health practitioners overall, where's the help? The only results

I'm seeing are sky-high cost increases in health insurance for my employees -

which is money we therefore cannot invest in growth areas for our business and

our employees' paychecks - and astronomical profits for the pharmaceutical

companies. Why? "

 

" Well, " our toy can and will respond, " if we did things any different than the

way we're doing them, we'd have no money to research and develop new drugs. And

without new drugs, people would have no way of treating all the disorders and

diseases plaguing our world and they'd all die. So let us keep doing things our

way, and have a nice day. "

 

Okay. Let's move on to someone even more informed about the pharmaceutical

industry - because they are forced to be here in the U.S. - a senior citizen.

Specifically, let's say a grandmother spending $1400 a year on drugs, like the

average senior over 65, and living on a tight fixed income, also like most

seniors:

 

" Why is that in Canada they pay an average of only 62% of what I have to pay for

the same drug? And the French pay just 55% of what I have to pay, and the

Italians only 53%? I mean, these are the SAME drugs, and in some cases, they're

even drugs exported from the U.S. into these countries - and they're charged

less than us!

 

" Even worse, I'm actually paying twice for these drugs, since my taxpayer

dollars fund the FDA and other government organizations that help the drug

companies bring these rip-offs to market. Why does the most profitable industry

in the world need financial aid from the government anyway?

 

" Most despicable of all, the drug companies are doing everything in their power

to stop me from being able to purchase my drugs at a lower cost from Canada, and

they're doing nothing to educate me or anyone else on how to prevent disease and

avoid their drugs in the first place. They just want to tear away all my

options, push me into a corner where my only choice is their drugs, and then

force me to pay their inflated prices for those drugs. How come? "

 

Programmed as he is to repeat the phrase, our cuddly Spin toy will respond:

 

" Well, if we did things any different than the way we're doing them, we'd have

no money to research and develop new drugs. And without new drugs, people would

have no way of treating all the disorders and diseases plaguing our world and

they'd all die. So let us keep doing things our way, and have a nice day. "

 

And do you see what an effective toy we've built with Spin? Valid as our test

subjects' facts and concerns are, they're hushed by the fear he creates that

without him, conventional healthcare would be an even greater disaster. Though

the U.S. ranks just 15th in the world in terms of overall health but, by a wide

margin, number one in terms of the price we pay for a prescription, Spin

convinces people and their government to just keep clinging to him more tightly.

 

This is again just like in the real world, where even the latest so-called

reform - the Medicare prescription drug legislation that passed the House and

Senate in June - has everything to do with shifting high prescription costs

around but nothing to do with lowering drug prices. On the contrary, which is

why the drug industry spent $135 million lobbying Congress with Spin dolls much

like our own to pass this bill.

 

Test Marketing - Phase Two

 

So let's say someone like you, who receives Dr. Mercola's free eHealthy News You

Can Use newsletter from Mercola.com and therefore has access to in-depth facts,

insights and solutions to the institutions corrupting conventional healthcare,

wrapped your fingers around our Spin doll's neck and addressed him with what you

know:

 

" First, according to various studies including one must-read conducted by the

Boston University School of Public Health (PDF), just 11% of drug company

revenue typically goes to research and development. Meanwhile, about 16% is

taken as profit, and over 30%, or three times the amount spent on R & D, is

devoted to drug marketing and administration. And it's their marketing budget --

not R & D, which has remained a steady percentage of their revenue for years --

that has been expanding most rapidly. What's more their massive profit is PURE

profit, meaning it's AFTER all costs including R & D, meaning it goes to happy

shareholders and some of the richest executives in the world, amongst other

healthcare causes.

 

" Second, research and development for what " new " drugs? According to a 2002

National Institutes of Health study, only 15% of drugs approved by the FDA

between 1989 and 2000 were cited as offering significant clinical advantage over

drugs already on the market. That is, a vast majority of R & D dollars are spent

on developing drugs that simply compete with existing drugs already on the

market, so drug company A can try to rip sales away from drug company B. It has

very little to do with improving our health and everything to do with increasing

profits. The so-called R & D is, in other words, primarily marketing in disguise. "

 

To which our Spin doll would malfunction.

 

But here's the good news: most people are not aware of the facts above. Most

people are addicted to the pharmaceutical model of healthcare and don't even

have the rudimentary knowledge of the drug industry displayed in phase one of

our toy testing above.

 

And as long as you don'tdocument.write ( " pass this article along to others " );

pass this article along to others, convince them to sign up for the free

Mercola.com newsletter, or otherwise spread this information, we'll continue to

have a mass market of suckers who'll want to cling tightly to our toy, Spin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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