Pharmaceutical Industry or Pharmaceutical Monopoly?
Imagine being an average middle class American. You do not make too much money, do not make to little, but just enough to have a nice house and car. Any extraneous money needed for anything is a struggle to provide. You just had surgery to remove your tonsils that have been causing you problems for many years. Just after surgery, you need to pay for steroids and other medications to help heal quickly, and oddly you experience severe nausea and vomiting; something that does not happen to you very often. You search on the Internet to see what might be happening, It could be the flu, a cold, a stomach bug, but instead you find out that it is fairly common to have nausea and vomiting post-operation. …show more content…
The whole process of making a drug begins with research and development by the pharmaceutical company. While many medications make it to the market, some do not. With this in mind, pharmaceutical companies justify jacking up prices to make up for the money spent on research for the un-marketed drugs. According to Randy Olson, a research writer on March 1st 2015, Johnson and Johnson spent $8.2 billion dollars on research for 2014, but only manufactured 40 brand name medications. Johnson and Johnson states that they spent $8.2 billion, but also according to Olson, Johnson and Johnson spent $17.5 billion dollars on sales and marking for 2014 (Olson). This means that they are spending more than double of money on advertising instead of using it for research. So what does this mean for patients? Should they have to pay for the big companies advertising and research cost as well as the plain cost of the drug? Should they pay more so the companies can maintain their huge profit margin? According to Richard Anderson a business reporter for BBC News, “US giant Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company by pharmaceutical revenue, made an eye-watering 42% profit margin” (Anderson). To put that into perspective, in just 2014 they made over $49.6 billion dollars in revenue. Is it anywhere near fair for big pharmaceutical companies to charge obsessive amounts of money to …show more content…
Wrong. Pharmaceutical companies walk all over the FDA and the American population by slanting studies to make their lives easier. Sometimes they do it to make even more money! According to Jeremy Hsu, a reporter for livescience.com on June 24, 2010, “medical journals or pharmaceutical companies that sponsor research will report only ‘positive’ results, leaving out the non-findings or negative findings where a new drug or procedure may have proved more harmful than helpful” (Hsu). This means that instead of warning against possible problems and looking out for patient’s well being, companies take the easy way out and ultimately end up hurting patients. According to Robert Roy Britt, another researcher for livescience.com on October 26, 2009, found that a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that one-third of all medical studies turn out to be wrong. One example of a skewed study is in 2007 where scientists found that honey actually is a more effective cough medicine for soothing children’s coughs than cough drops. A lot of times existing treatments are still used even after they are scientifically proved wrong and widely accepted by the medical profession (Britt). Every person has seen one of those recall commercials on TV where patients can file a lawsuit due to and unlisted side effect or death from taking a drug. This is a result of skewed
Imagine being an average middle class American. You do not make too much money, do not make to little, but just enough to have a nice house and car. Any extraneous money needed for anything is a struggle to provide. You just had surgery to remove your tonsils that have been causing you problems for many years. Just after surgery, you need to pay for steroids and other medications to help heal quickly, and oddly you experience severe nausea and vomiting; something that does not happen to you very often. You search on the Internet to see what might be happening, It could be the flu, a cold, a stomach bug, but instead you find out that it is fairly common to have nausea and vomiting post-operation. …show more content…
The whole process of making a drug begins with research and development by the pharmaceutical company. While many medications make it to the market, some do not. With this in mind, pharmaceutical companies justify jacking up prices to make up for the money spent on research for the un-marketed drugs. According to Randy Olson, a research writer on March 1st 2015, Johnson and Johnson spent $8.2 billion dollars on research for 2014, but only manufactured 40 brand name medications. Johnson and Johnson states that they spent $8.2 billion, but also according to Olson, Johnson and Johnson spent $17.5 billion dollars on sales and marking for 2014 (Olson). This means that they are spending more than double of money on advertising instead of using it for research. So what does this mean for patients? Should they have to pay for the big companies advertising and research cost as well as the plain cost of the drug? Should they pay more so the companies can maintain their huge profit margin? According to Richard Anderson a business reporter for BBC News, “US giant Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company by pharmaceutical revenue, made an eye-watering 42% profit margin” (Anderson). To put that into perspective, in just 2014 they made over $49.6 billion dollars in revenue. Is it anywhere near fair for big pharmaceutical companies to charge obsessive amounts of money to …show more content…
Wrong. Pharmaceutical companies walk all over the FDA and the American population by slanting studies to make their lives easier. Sometimes they do it to make even more money! According to Jeremy Hsu, a reporter for livescience.com on June 24, 2010, “medical journals or pharmaceutical companies that sponsor research will report only ‘positive’ results, leaving out the non-findings or negative findings where a new drug or procedure may have proved more harmful than helpful” (Hsu). This means that instead of warning against possible problems and looking out for patient’s well being, companies take the easy way out and ultimately end up hurting patients. According to Robert Roy Britt, another researcher for livescience.com on October 26, 2009, found that a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that one-third of all medical studies turn out to be wrong. One example of a skewed study is in 2007 where scientists found that honey actually is a more effective cough medicine for soothing children’s coughs than cough drops. A lot of times existing treatments are still used even after they are scientifically proved wrong and widely accepted by the medical profession (Britt). Every person has seen one of those recall commercials on TV where patients can file a lawsuit due to and unlisted side effect or death from taking a drug. This is a result of skewed