Attack of the Pharma-Barbies

[Guest guest]

Below was posted on a blog the other day. He said it was OK to post

to health lists I am on. URL at end.

 

Alobar

 

=============================================

 

Attack of the Pharma-Barbies

 

I just got back from the doctor's office, and witnessed another . . .

what to call it? Visitation? Haunting? Bout? Infestation?

 

They dress in the finest business couture, sporting expensive

accessories and finely-coifed hair. From a cursory appraisal only,

some bear the looks of further, more surgical enhancements. They are

happy to pick up bits of fallen crap in the waiting room, or help move

file boxes behind the counter. They always smile. You can see this

last duty can sometimes hurt their faces. They always come bearing

gifts. Always.

 

They are the Pharma-Barbies.

 

 

Pharma-Barbies (and the lesser-seen male version Pharma-Kens) work as

local representatives for large pharmaceutical companies extolling the

virtues of the various unguents, polstices, compounds, capsules,

pills, and et cetera ad infinitum ad nauseum produced by pharma large

and small. They make mostly weekly rounds, driving within their

clearly defined boundaries and chatting up doctors at local offices,

promoting, begging, wheedling, doing anything necessary to somehow

convince the docs to prescribe goodies found exclusively in the

company's pharmacological cornucopia. Since the only way behind the

counter is through the reception desk, they never treat receptionist

with anything but cheery goodness, bringing coffees, lunch coupons for

the whole office, tickets to dinners (provided the doctor also

attend), even dropping (and I witnessed this twice, once today and

once yesterday) gift-wrapped designer chocolates right on the desk

alongside the sample stacks. These same samples, given freely to

doctors without obligation, in some cases cost needy, uninsured

patients hundreds of dollars a month.

 

You see, Dear Readers, pharmaceutical companies have a dirty secret.

Remember the health care dog-and-pony shows the senate or the house or

something conducted a few years ago investigating the staggering cost

of prescriptions? Remember the various representatives of " big pharma "

testifying as to the astronomical costs involved in developing any

given drug, " from a low of $800 million to nearly $2 billion per

drug? "

http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/intelprp/cost.htm

 

Well, perhaps those " development costs " should be clarified.

" Development " includes the cost of developing the market for a drug.

 

That's right, folks. Every new drug budget includes advertising and

marketing costs, everything from the money paid to inundate the

airwaves for the latest purple, boner or hair-growing pill, to the

snacks, treats, goodies and other effluvia flooding doctors far and

wide.

 

Things used to be worse, according to a little chat I had with my

doctor today. (He's chatty and easy-going. We talk about his college

days working on halibut boats and mine on more local craft, about the

news, the weather, whatever. He's pretty cool.) Doctors in high-volume

and high-end offices (read: lots of money-bearing patients) used to

get all-expenses-paid Caribean vacations sponsored by Big Pharma. When

the gov clamped down on this more obvious graft, they shifted to

sponsoring " continuing education seminars, " meetings where doctors

could listen to experts in various medical fields talk about their

research. I " attended " several of these myself when I captained and

crewed passenger boats. These seminars most often featured generous

buffets and open bars. They tucked the speaker in a corner with a mike

so those actually interested in what he or she had to say wouldn't get

in the way of the free Pharma party -- always, always, always hosted

by a smiling, convivial, and very well-proportioned Pharma Barbie.

 

How wide-spread is this high-heeled boots on the ground marketing

system? A few years ago, I accompanied my wife to our doctor's office

and waited for her to finish her appointment. I saw three different

representatives go in and out of the office in the hour and a half I

warmed the waiting room chair. At one point I nearly lost my lid when

the receptionist informed a rep that she was the second PhB to visit

that week. (One rep usually visits once a week, a limit established by

the docs themselves.) Imagine, if you will, the money needed to:

 

# Buy PhB outfits;

# Pay for a PhB convertible;

# Pay for a PhB Dreamhouse;

# Pay for the Starbucks and Godiva presented at every visit;

# Pay for the lunches, dinners, picnics, cruises and other goodies;

# Pay for the coffee cups, note pads, post-its, pens and other swag

dumped on the receptionists, all emblazoned with the Pharma logo and

Pill of the Week;

 

 

TIMES TWO!!! PER DOCTOR!!!

 

 

 

I got so worked up and mad mentally compiling this figure, staring at

the (in this case) overlapping Pharma-Ken in his expensive suit who

was at that moment sucking up to the receptionist by picking up toys a

waiting child had scattered . . . I freaked out one of the doctors. He

walked into my wife's exam room and mentioned there was some

evil-looking and threatening bus driver (I was still in uniform) in

the waiting room, and that he was thinking about calling the cops. I

guess I have an expressive face.

 

I guess I'm not the only one steamed at the system. You see, pharma

supply drugs to the local drug stores. The stores pass on information

about which doc writes each prescription. This info is passed down to

the reps along with a goal for those reps to improve those sales

figures. Reps are paid by commission, so the more pills they can push

through the docs, the more they get paid. . . no matter whether the

drug is needed or not. Today the doc told me they (my doc and the

other doc at the same practice) sometimes have to ban individual reps

that get too pleading, clinging and whiney. A few years ago they

banned reps altogether. They allowed them back only because the free

samples are awfully handy. Doctors can give a couple different drugs

to patients without charge so the patients can see which drug -- each

from a competing pharma company and pushed by a different PhB -- works

best for them.

 

He also mentioned he and about 90% of his colleagues would love a

nationalized health care system. It would eliminate the swarms of

PhBs, the hassles he has fighting with insurance companies, the

ensuing paperwork generated by those hassles, the whole nine yards. He

could actually spend his time at the office doctoring. What a concept.

 

 

 

Until then, however, be aware, Gentle Readers, of the tricks Big

Pharma has to inflate their " development " dollars. Remember the bevy

of bouncing, er, personalities, and the treats they bear paid for by

these " development " dollars, and think of how much less you might have

to spend on pills or -- if you are so blessed -- the insurance

necessary to get said pills. Do as I do, if you have a mind, and tell

your doctor that you will not swallow any non-generic drug (generics

are older drugs whose patent protections have expired, and are

therefore not promoted in marketing).

 

Or go further. Pressure congress to pass legislation. Perhaps they can

strengthen HIPA legislation and forbid drug stores from revealing

which doctors actually write prescriptions. This double-blindness

would greatly reduce the pressure individual docs currently receive.

Also, laws could require Pharma to specify how " development " costs are

spent, itemizing every line on the budget and publishing that info. I

would be very curious to know exactly what portion of the billions

spent yearly go to television ads I have to skim through or

receptionist chocolates doled by Those That March In High Heals. I

must assume that many folks out there are completely unaware of this

loophole and would be equally galled to know the real dollar amount of

crap wrapped in the cost of every capsule we must swallow.

 

http://peristaltor.livejournal.com/94562.html