I mean REALLY, it's hard core, in your face, merchandising.
"Ask your doctor if "xyz" is right for you".....
They have actors smiling, and pretending, that their life is better because of the drug they're pushing.
Could be, but don't you think a doctor, and not the patient, should be the one prescribing what medication is best for your treatment?

I'm all for doing your research when you need help, but big pharma would label shit "ranch or barbeque flavored" if they thought they could get people to choose a treatment more easily.

Shopping for drugs right on your teevee. What an excellent idea.

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Those annoying prescription drug commercials have got to go. Your physician not Madison Avenue should be in control of what you take. I am ready to do something about it...maybe.
DTCA - direct to consumer advertising - is legal only in the US and New Zealand.
Big Pharma spends more for advertising than it does for research. Soooooo.
Would removing the ads from media change anything? Or would it just improve their bottom line.

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Right on Heather Gehlert!

Washington is literally crawling with BigPharma lobbyists who are the "suit and tie" equivalent of the street corner drug pusher.

In July 2002 I forcasted below which regrettably has mostly become manifest.

The final step is indictment and conviction (jail time)of some CEO's of BigPharma.Fines and settling lawsuits are simply not enough.

Here is my #9 point July 2002 forecast-

“Major Trouble ahead for Pharmaceutical firms”

1)Classical example of how greed and arrogance and the excesses of the free market takes something that is truly miraculous (life saving drugs/vaccines) and moves it to excess which then "backfires" See Teller -"When Technology Bites Back" or Dutton “ Worse Than The Disease"

2)Direct marketing to consumers on TV is a real debacle- the pharm companies come across as bone-fide drug pushers which they have become!

3)Science will show an increasing number of pharm products do more harm than good. They may be "efficacious" BUT THEY ARE NOT SAFE- grossly underestimated as contributing to cancer for example-see prempro story recently


4)Polypharmacy is running rampant- too many drugs for too many conditions in an individual- will get MUCH WORSE as naive boomers age and take more and more mixed meds

5)Psychotropics, analgesics and sedating antihistamines are contributing to serious safety problems on America’s highways and workplaces and who knows what other errors in judgment by leaders with this stuff swirling around their brains

6)Medications, especially psychotropics and analgesics are migrating in
alarmingly large quantities to illicit market (eg. Oxycotin)


7)Yet politically, denying NEEDED drugs to elderly is hottest political issue going-another one is denying affordable drugs to millions dying of aids especially in Africa. So some populations are UNDERMEDICATED. Many in US are OVERMEDICATED

8)In high density populations there is the issue of ultimate ENVIRONMENTAL FATE in soil and water of human excreted medicines and/or their metabolites

9)Congressional Hearings ahead with tone of Tobacco and Asbestos

Richard A. Lippin, MD
Health Sector Forecaster-July 2002
Southampton, Pa
http://medicalcrises.blogspot.com

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it is clearly money laundering from the people to the people. they are the axes of evil which warned us, your either with us or against us? shock and awe? this pres. clearly knew something he does not think enough people here are aware of.
they have been trying to turn this country into third world country since kennedy shot by the the secret gov. which runs the industrial military complex, this is what they will use to try to shock and awe us.

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Don't mess with the doctors.

You could find yourself with debilitating physical side-effects from unnecessary prescription drugs or even mental impairment. You could find yourself undergoing unnecessary surgery. You could find yourself threatened with a TEAM of lawyers. You could find yourself labelled with some vague psychosis that gives the government power to take your children away should you become too disruptive.

Word of experience here: do NOT mess with the doctors :(

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The unfortunate thing is that in the flood of testing and pharmaceutical nostrums, we are, in a sense, losing the baby with the bath water.

How? There are some really effective and safe drugs for certain health conditions. However, in the huge mass of drugs being thrust upon the public, it is increasingly difficult to find a doctor who is really able and concerned enough to fight through the zillions of claims and limit treatment to the few pearls in the dross.

How to distinguish between a really exciting product that will enhance your patient's health and one that was just developed so its patent could start running (after the previous favorite drug's had run out, becoming generic - therefore inexpensive?)

The other part of the story, largely untold by the media, is the derogation and ignoring of perfectly fine natural alternatives to many of the superdrugs being so aggressively peddled.

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Not taken into consideration here is the budget big Pharma spends on swaying the medical world to use their drugs. Does your doctor write a note for you on a Zoloft scratch pad with an Astra Zeneka pen he pulls from his Requip pocket protector?

During my tenure with the biggest medical practice in my county I was blown away by the number of Pharma reps in and out of our office on a daily basis. The physicians who ran the business used these as a means of providing free employee incentives (a cheap gesture towards a staff paid very poorly). Every Thursday we had a free lunch provided by a Pharma rep team which included games and prizes. It is really a sick way to push drugs.

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All the commercials in the world will sell me nothing if I CHOOSE not to pay attention to them. That is MY responsibility.

It rather looks as if the pharmaceutical companies are being so successful with their advertising because there are a lot of people who aren't making good choices.

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from the statistics released lately it looks like they've been very successful.Addiction to prescription painkillers is at an all time high and rising.

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Have you watched any "SOAP" operas lately??? They're not advertising soap any longer, they should be called "DRUG" or "DOPE" operas!!! Tobacco, and alcohol companies, have lost their freedom of speech, because it was said that their adds were aimed at children, I guess that children just don't watch all of the drug commercials that are being pushed at them all day long on television???

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We need to convince the public that big pharma does not discover the drugs that help fight disease. That real research is done by NIH (National Institute of Heath) supported researchers and hundreds of small companies, run by people trying to become rich and famous. Big pharma spends its money on product development (after it licenses from the small company or buys the small company) and advertising and lobbying. Smaller profits would not mean fewer new important drugs; it would mean less advertising and less pressure on physicians and on the politicians.

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