Posted on 07/30/2009 7:06:41 AM PDT by truthnomatterwhat
Recently, I was watching a TV commercial for a self-proclaimed breakthrough drug I was encouraged to “ask my doctor about.” As I was watching the ad all I could think about was how difficult it must be to produce an appealing promotion for a product that has so many devastating side effects. You’d have to be a marketing genius to peddle some of these drugs. One “pharmaceutical therapy” that aims to help people with insomnia sleep better at night, for example, comes with a laundry list of possible side effects, including but not limited to hives, difficulty breathing, swelling of the face, lips, tongue or throat, impaired thinking, slowed reactions and drowsiness. The commercial admitted the drug can be habit-forming and stopping usage may cause withdrawal symptoms. By taking this drug, then, you can get a good night’s sleep but may wake up with hives and swollen eyes, unable to breathe or drive to work. Wow! Do you still feel you should call your doctor right away? If you do then the marketing team did an award-winning job with its campaign.
It may surprise you to learn that some drug companies are spending more each year on advertising and marketing than on research and development of new products. Roughly $60 billion dollars is spent yearly on illegal drugs in the United States, according to U.S. government estimates. These publicly-traded legal drug dealers, however, are now surpassing illegal drug revenues. Obviously, there are big bucks in the sale of legal drugs. Eli Lilly, maker of Prozac, for example, is a $61 billion company that sells its products in over 140 countries. And who hasn’t seen a commercial about Viagra? This drug is made by drug giant Pfizer, a $170 billion company. Forbes magazine reported that...
(Excerpt) Read more at thevoicemagazine.com ...
Nuthin but plain jane asprin for me thanks.
“Brave New World” comes to mind...
Then there’s the new ailment: RLS. Restless let syndrome, developed by drugmakes to market a completely new “syndrome”. And no doubt there were and are, many takers.
Evil drug companies are trying to make (shudder) profits! ONOZ!
Great Post! And so true. I have a friend who is prescribed Adderall. She now thinks the world is being run by people in a cave in Northern Arkansas.
Several more friends addicted to hydrocodone and other meds.
Pathetic.
parsy.
This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if people did not insist that insurance paid for the costs of every single drug.
Just imagine most are ending up in our water supply!
Aspirin would never be approved for use today because of the side effects.
I don’t want me or mine to be the one in a thousand that suffers from the side effects?
Even the side effects from new biologics for arthitis are worse than arthritis itself. I will take my deformed fingers over leukemia or a simple infection that can destroy the body any day.
This is the kind of fearmongering that plays right into the arguments that the government needs to have more control of your health care.
I think the gubmit wants us all drugged up so that we are relaxed and don’t question their actions.
We have a government bureaucracy that requires drug companies spend hundreds-of-millions of dollars and years to develope and test drugs before they are allowed to sell them. Then we complain that the companies actually try and recoup their costs and make a profit by advertising.
I believe the incidence of a drug being accidentally discovered because observed to have a beneficial effect on some condition are pretty small. The sequence is almost always that of an observed or known illness or condition followed by years or decades of research and developement followed by some breakthrough compound that relieves or cures the ailment or condition.
Some drugs have multiple applications. Given the huge cost in time, labor and money of developing these things I would certainly expect the people who do all the work to try and find as many applications as possible in order to broaden their market for the drug.
As pointed out above all drugs have side effects. I am hard pressed to think of a human activity that doesn’t. The question is are the side effects worth suffering because the condition or ailment treated is far worse? The choice is ours. No one puts a gun to our head and forces us to take these things.
Oh no, evil drug companies are turning our brains into bean dip. Spare me..
“Just imagine most are ending up in our water supply!”
This is not something to worry about at all! They show up because our testing has become so amazingly good. They show up as something like 0.001 parts per buzillian. You’d have to drink an olympic sized swimming pool full of water everyday to even get a small dose of these meds. The test results should be, and will be, continually monitored, but don’t worry about it.
Water sources such as groundwater are more likely to see these minute quantities show up in tests. Deep wells are highly unlikely to see the same results.
Don’t fall for that news hype about the pharms in the water! It was ginned up to increase news sales.
That is because it IS a stupid anti-technology, anti-capitalist rant.
‘How DARE pharmaceutical companies make a PROFIT off of sick people!’ is the underlying premise; not ‘Wow, they produced a new drug that is more effective with less side effects that improves peoples quality of life IF they are willing to pay for it (and they seem to be)’.
“What about arsenic? “
Arsenic is commonly found in well water. Naturally occurring. It’s tested for on a regular basis in all systems. EPA requires it. If it’s too high, treatment is required to remove it.
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