Pharmaceutical companies have been criticized recently for transforming the noble cause of finding cures into a billion dollar industry, while capitalizing on the common ailments that we all suffer from.
It seems that medical science has made so much progress that the pharmaceutical industry’s objective is no longer always to find a cure, but to find temporary relief for sicknesses in order to create a dependency on over-priced medications. Smaller pharmaceutical firms have exposed these exorbitant prices by offering generic brands of the same medications at a fraction of the cost, but consumer deception continues.
Profits that were originally allocated to research and development are now geared towards the marketing of company products. Last year the pharmaceutical industry spent over four billion dollars on advertising. We’ve all seen or heard the peculiar ads that tell you to go and ask your doctor if a drug is “right for you” after spewing out a long list of side effects that seem to be worse than the benefits themselves. Children curiously watch ads offering cures for erectile dysfunction during commercials for The Simpsons.
This new trend of advertising miracle cures to average citizens completely undermines the screening process that doctors provide in recommending the right prescription medication to their patients. Doctors with years of education and experience, who have full knowledge of their patients’ medical histories, are the only ones qualified to prescribe medication.
But it seems that the role of doctors is changing; they are now forced to dispel the myths about medication use that these advertising images create. Many ads warn of “widespread, serious and treatable” under-diagnosed ailments that, in reality, affect very few people.
Drug companies are determined to change the way we think about medication and sickness. Heartburn is now referred to as acid reflux disease, male baldness is a medical condition, and shyness is an anxiety disorder. Is it diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome? Am I suffering from depression or just having a bad day? Drug ads create more confusion rather than the awareness they claim to offer.
The problem with this situation is that these companies and the entire industry have an obligation to make life-saving medicines accessible to those who are in dire need, an obligation that must supersede their financial obligation to stockholders.
I’m not suggesting that companies should go bankrupt in their efforts to provide affordable medication. In fact, they assuredly won’t. Mass production of most medications is relatively cheap, and as a result pharmaceutical companies have a greater profit to revenue margin than any other industry, according to Fortune magazine.
Fortune also reveals that the top seven pharmaceutical companies make more profit than those in the automotive, oil or airline industries, raking in over twenty billion dollars of net profit last year. Pfizer, Inc. is currently the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, with annual gross profits of a tidy $53 billion.
We need to recognize the inherent conflict in the fact that pharmaceutical companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders but at the same time have a moral responsibility to the poor. With large pharmaceutical firms focusing on advertising and medicating maladies of affluence such as hair loss, serious afflictions like the AIDS epidemic currently sweeping the developing world are inevitably being sidelined.
