i. As of 2014, Global Pharma sales had reached over a trillion dollars, and they are continuing to climb every year. With the advent of electronic medical records, the era of data driven marketing by Big Pharma has come under several ethical issues. With patient’s data being readily available for purchase by Pharmaceutical companies, their drug reps can pinpoint which doctors to approach, and which drugs they should approach them with. Drug reps generally only approach doctors that write a large amount of prescriptions, and for good reason. A single doctor could literally add 100-200k in sales for a Pharmaceutic company through prescribing their drugs. They will use terms like, “Thought Leaders”, or “Educators” and pay the doctors to lecture
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The main goal of any public company is to make money and be profitable. Because of this, the drug reps will push their companies patented drugs over competitor, and generic drugs no matter the cost increase or ineffectiveness of those drugs. With the influence of prescription data, and paid speaking requests, drug reps can literally manipulate a doctor into prescribing drugs that aren’t even needed by patients, and in some cases, can do more harm than good. One of worst aspect of this manipulation, is this marketing ammunition is acquired through private interactions between doctors and patients, without the patients even realizing it. This not only defies doctor-patient confidentiality; it makes a complete mockery of it. Big Pharma spends billions of dollars on marketing directly to physicians, and will continue this practice as long as it’s …show more content…
When people go to their doctor, they expect their interactions with medical professionals are confidential. One of the more unethical issues that arise from this behavior is the AMA, the organization that makes the rules, is also the one that sells off the information. If doctors fill out No Contact and No Release Forms, their patient’s information will be protected from marketing purposes, but the doctors will also stop receiving health hazard warnings, and drug recall notices. Also, what happens if there is a data breach, and millions of people’s medical records are released. The practice of data mining needs to be limited to educational, and health purposes only. Not only are there multiple unethical concerns, it could also be damaging to millions of
The main goal of any public company is to make money and be profitable. Because of this, the drug reps will push their companies patented drugs over competitor, and generic drugs no matter the cost increase or ineffectiveness of those drugs. With the influence of prescription data, and paid speaking requests, drug reps can literally manipulate a doctor into prescribing drugs that aren’t even needed by patients, and in some cases, can do more harm than good. One of worst aspect of this manipulation, is this marketing ammunition is acquired through private interactions between doctors and patients, without the patients even realizing it. This not only defies doctor-patient confidentiality; it makes a complete mockery of it. Big Pharma spends billions of dollars on marketing directly to physicians, and will continue this practice as long as it’s …show more content…
When people go to their doctor, they expect their interactions with medical professionals are confidential. One of the more unethical issues that arise from this behavior is the AMA, the organization that makes the rules, is also the one that sells off the information. If doctors fill out No Contact and No Release Forms, their patient’s information will be protected from marketing purposes, but the doctors will also stop receiving health hazard warnings, and drug recall notices. Also, what happens if there is a data breach, and millions of people’s medical records are released. The practice of data mining needs to be limited to educational, and health purposes only. Not only are there multiple unethical concerns, it could also be damaging to millions of