No the few drugs listed are not insignificant, however, if you want to start a crusade against companies who have caused loss of life or reduced quality of life, there are plenty more to pursue first.
I’m not saying that drug companies are always in the right, but for them to knowingly market drugs that counteract the very point of their existence seems a little far fetched.
Releasing drugs without full data on its long term effects, sure I can see that. Who could possibly know what would happen with prolonged use for 30 years?
Ah. Well. There you have me. I’m not very qualified, but then again the bottom line is: don’t accept what anybody says as the gospel. Not much qualifies a drug rep to do what they do, either. Think about how much the typical car salesperson knows about cars. Yech…
Car sales is a slightly different animal. There they want a warm body.
I know people who work for drug companies and they go through a bit more training than car salespeople.
I don’t wage war. I just want people to be more aware of their options. I don’t think every patient is being taken for a ride–only a small portion are–but if the people I care about know what I know, they will be better prepared at the doctor’s office the next time they are there.
I don’t focus on the rep, but they are part of the equation. I wasn’t going to argue with her. Whatever puts food on her table, I guess.
As someone who takes medication daily and sees a doctor often, enlighten on some of things I should know, that u feel that should be of concern to me as a patient
Jules: What does Marcellus Wallace look like? Brett: What? Jules: What country you from? Brett: What? Jules: What ain’t no country I ever heard of! They speak English in What? Brett: What? Jules: ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO-YOU-SPEAK-IT? Brett: Yes! Jules: Then you know what I’m saying! Brett: Yes! Jules: Describe what Marcellus Wallace looks like! Brett: What, I-? Jules: [pointing his gun] Say what again. SAY WHAT AGAIN. I dare you, I double dare you, motherfucker. Say what one more goddamn time. Brett: He’s b-b-black… Jules: Go on. Brett: He’s bald… Jules: Does he look like a bitch? Brett: What?
[Jules shoots Brett in shoulder] Jules: DOES HE LOOK LIKE A BITCH? Brett: No! Jules: Then why you try to fuck him like a bitch, Brett? Brett: I didn’t. Jules: Yes you did. Yes you did, Brett. You tried to fuck him. And Marcellus Wallace don’t like to be fucked by anybody, except Mrs. Wallace.
Have you ever noticed the list of side-effects of the drugs that you see advertised all over TV and elsewhere? I see those things and think I’d rather just have the disease, and at least know what to expect. :biglaugh:
The FDA is a crock of shit…A total joke that is virtually ran by pharmaceutical corporations.
Do some looking, you’ll find proof of successful, life saving drugs whose FDA approvals were thrown out, all because it wasn’t patentable and they couldn’t make a profit on it.
The whole industry is screwed. Take allergy medication for instance.There is the drug Zyrtec here in the United States. It is a effective way to help deal with allergy symptoms, but in order to fuel a pointless trail of income for the medical industry, it is an exspensive prescription drug. But only in America. It is OTC in Canada, at a quite low cost. Not much more than pseudophedrine is.
Then one also must love how the FDA condemns herbal remedies, again because they cannot be patented. I have a yellow lab. he is prone to horrible ear infections, that occur often with very intense effects. The vet wants to jump on prescribing this $100+ bottle of antibiotic solution. When instead for $20, we have been able to successfully treat, and in most cases more effectively treat his ear infections with Tea Tree Oil.
Well, the problem there is that the average healthcare consumer expects the doctor to “know everything and have a fix for everything”, even if one doesn’t exist.
So if you really want to talk about ethics and waste, just look at the attitudes of people in general. Medicare announced that 20% of their expenditures go to people in the last 5 months of their life. Even the New York Times ran an article questioning whether or not spending $50K on a drug to prolong life another 3 months is really worth it. And this coming from a population that sees nothing wrong with supersized fast food, tobacco, etc. Imagine if all that money went into prevention programs instead (but we don’t think that way, do we?)
As another example, It’s well-known that antibiotics are often over-prescribed, because patients demand to be treated for their illness, even ones that appear to be viral & unresponsive to antibiotics. Many practitioners prescribe anyway, because of the concern that the patient will just “go to another doctor and get them anyway”. Doctor-shopping is a very real phenomenon - it’s rare that anyone has a primary-care doctor for more than a few years these days.
Now healthcare is a business, good or bad. So I’d argue that the average American is getting just what they deserve in terms of a healthcare system. I remember a specific quote: “every system is perfectly designed to get the results it achieves”.
So unless we change the perception of the average American, nothing will change.
