5 SHOCKING THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT
BIG PHARMA
Hello, Ken Baxter here in sunny Las Vegas and welcome! If you have been following me on my blogs you may already know how passionate I am about the evils Big Pharma and their stranglehold on American consumers.
Let’s start with obscene profits, aggressive lobbying, dishonest marketing strategies, prescribing incentives for medical professionals that may shock you. Take a look at the chart from Statista below; the numbers represent what America hands over to drug companies combined – in BILLIONS. The numbers for 2018 and 2019 are estimated since the final numbers are not final – well on their way to $1 trillion.
When most Americans hear about drug cartels, in conjures up thoughts of Mexican Kingpins or organized crime, when in reality it is legal drug manufacturers that are raking in enormous profits through creative marketing, price fixing and controlling the patents on medications for these life threatening conditions.
Did You Know?
Did you know that pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing than research and development? Slick advertising campaigns crank out television and radio ads using familiar songs or jingles to encourage the public to “ask your doctor” if their drug is right for you.
Did you know much of Big Pharma’s success over the last couple decades has been through introducing new populations to a wide range of symptoms and diseases by a process called “disease mongering”. This involves creating new diseases and maladies to try to convince consumers into believing there’s something abnormally wrong with them. Typically by taking a normal function, stating that a large portion of the population is “suffering” from the same problem or taking a common symptom that could be anything and making it sound like a serious disease. Then by selectively using statistics to exaggerate the benefits of their product Big Pharma connives to invent, promote, package and sell.
Did you know your doctor may have an ulterior motive behind your prescription? Drug reps with typically no medical science education often give gifts to convince doctors or present skewed, false statistics to get them to prescribe the medications that they represent.
As an example, Oxycodone, from Purdue Pharmaceuticals as OxyCotin, is highly addictive and gives a heroin-like rush which is released when pills are crushed or chewed. Many pain patients became dependent on the drug for more than pain relief and found themselves with a full scale addition that has led to severe and damaging consequences. By using a generous bonus system Purdue encouraged sales representatives to increase sales of OxyContin in their territories, by targeting primary care physicians.
Did you know that roughly two thirds of the drugs introduced as “new” aren‘t really new? These so-called “new” prescription drugs are identical to existing drugs or are slightly modified versions of them.
Did you know the price of prescription drugs is increasing faster than anything else a patient pays for? The prices of the most heavily prescribed drugs are routinely jacked up, sometimes several times a year. Some medications have a mark-up of 1,000 percent over the cost of their ingredients.
As seen in the video above, the biggest cash cow of the bunch right now is a drug called Humira from AbbVie, Inc. (formerly Abbott Laboratories). The drug is used to treat Arthritis (Oesto, Rheumatoid & Psoriatic), Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and Psoriasis. You had better hope you have prescription coverage – a 30 day supply will cost you between $4,500 – $5,500! The incentive is definitely there to sell as much of the drug as possible.
Big Pharma companies have also positioned themselves to control the price of drugs developed to treat five of the most costly medical conditions. Starting with Cardiovascular disease at number one, this is followed by Diabetes, Cancer, lung related illness such as Asthma and COPD and Arthritis.
If you share my passion for exposing the evils of Big Pharma, feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you. You can also email me at Rocketman@kenbaxter.com
