Pros And Cons Of Prescription Drug Advertising

Many believe that the FDA has financial reasons for allowing a drug to be on the market. In 2006, a study found that” in 22% of advisory board meetings, more than half the members had direct financial in the companies whose medial products they evaluated or their rivals”. The FDA’s advisory boards should not be able to vote on companies that they have financial ties to. The FDA says they do the best they can to create an unbiased board, but it is difficult to find “top medical experts with no ties” to pharmaceutical companies. Since a number of people have complained about this, Congress decided to make the FDA cut twenty-five percent of the advisory board that has financial ties with the pharmaceutical company being evaluated over the next five years.

Right now in the United States of America, there is a monopoly that exists that involves epinephrine auto-injectors. EpiPen is the United States only supplier of these auto-injectors because other brands have suffered setbacks and failures, patent protection laws, and because there are currently no generic versions of EpiPen in the United States (Johnson). This monopoly was not a problem until Mylan bought Meda AB in 2007 (Paton). “Since Mylan bought the rights to EpiPen in 2007, it has raised the price on 15 separate occasions, bringing the current list price to $608 for a two-pack up from about $50 a pen in 2007” (Mole). This has been a price increase of more than 500%, and this shows that Mylan has been using the monopoly to its advantage.

Nowadays it seems like legal drugs are more expensive than illegal ones. This dilemma occurs because the pharmaceutical industry affects the economy significantly. Although the United States is a mixed market economy, there are instances where the economy seems like a free market economy. A free market economy allows companies to determine the prices of goods free from government intervention. The pharmaceutical industry, despite several regulations set by the food and drug administration, is a free market economy.

Lori Chordas claims in her viewpoint that the production of generic versions of prescription drugs cuts the price of medication notably. Brand names can cost from thirty to eighty percent more than generic versions of the same medication. More Americans are recognizing the savings associated with buying generic brands instead of brand name. Generic drugs made up sixty five percent of prescription drugs distributed in 200 according to IMS Health.

In 2012, 11 of the major drug companies in the United States each made a net profit of nearly 85 million dollars. Big pharmaceutical companies have gained too much power these past decades. These companies take it upon themselves to decide what drugs are going to be produced and what information is going to be presented or hidden from the American public. Publication bias and conflict of interests are two of the biggest problems in the pharmaceutical industry. Publication bias occurs when companies take the results from the clinical trials and hide the information that could potentially hurt their chances of getting the new drug passed.

Daily millions of products come into the U.S. and the FDA inspects those products to protect the consumer from biological or radiation materials that pose a threat to lives. Every pharmaceutical company within the U.S. must meet the standards set by the FDA before patenting and selling their drugs. The actual process can take up to several years. Public health is the focus of the FDA and regulations and mandates changes constantly to meet the needs of the American

“A History of Drug Advertising: The Evolving Roles of Consumers and Consumer Protection.” The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 84, no. 4, 2006, pp. 659–699. MEDLINE, doi:10.1111/j.1468-0009.2006.00464.x.

There lies the problem: how is it possible for a person to take in account the possible dangers that are contained in what seems to be an average product if they don’t even know what lies in them? The FDA has to step up to inform and educate Americans about what lies in their products. Education is key; it’s what enables people to gain hold of a wiser set of free will: always choosing what is best for them. Americans are the students, and the FDA is the teacher.

Prescription drugs (opiates only) have caused over 165,000 deaths within the last 15 years and is currently on the rise. Over 2 million Americans in 2014 were addicted to Opiate prescription narcotics. The most troubling fact is listed directly on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website: “As many as 1 in 4

Prescription drug industry is an oligopolistic market where a few firms dominate the industry and entry into the market by new firms is generally considered highly unlikely. Entry barriers such as cost structure, pricing pressures, regulatory approval process, patent protection and legal restrictions form the primary sources that make it really hard on new entrants. Heavy spend in Sales, Marketing, R&D and Manufacturing required prescription drug firms to possess significant capital to survive. Patent protection gave these firms an opportunity to maintain monopoly for several years and remain profitable. Spend in R&D, early mover advantage and innovation ensured that the firms entering the industry could not replicate the chemical processes and manufacturing practices easily and cost effectively.

According to a Social Security report, the national average wage was $48,098 in 2014 (Social Security, n.d.). The average American earns less than 1% of a CEO. An article by Shana Lynch, explains that Americans “thought CEOs earned nearly $1 million, whereas the real average is about $10 million” (Lynch, 2016). The debate over CEO compensation has been widely discussed in terms of ethics and if a CEO is overpaid. CEO’s can be compensated for their work by a salary, bonuses, and stock options.

Elizabeth thanks for your post, I appreciate your candor and you do raise several great points regarding the advantages and disadvantage of pharmaceutical and medical supply companies. Although these companies market directly to the consumer, in the theory, they are helping to enlighten the public about the world of new or old medicines, and provide an argument as to why these new products are good for them. Even if it helps the public to be informed of new medications or new equipment being used to help their disease processes. Does it benefit all parties in the long run?

Eli Lilly and Company financial administrators have significant experience and skills in both business management and the pharmaceutical industry. According to Forbes, Eli Lilly as the 10th most significant pharmaceutical business in the world with $94.1 billion market capitalization. Since Lilly concentrated, it worked in the fields of drug analysis, development and marketed in the areas of endocrinology, neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, oncology, and women's health. The business made a significant improvement in the 1990's because of its successful antidepressant Prozac, but Eli Lilly has faced a possible loss in earnings with its patent early to expire.

With more drugs going off - patent, growth opportunities for the industry are expected to increase dramatically as generic

I feel that health care should be marketed to the patient. Is not “marketing is everything”? So why is health care any different after all it is a business. I mean isn’t the purpose of the clinics. hospitals or any other medical facilities are to help the sick to become well, but how can all this establishment generate profit to pursue and provide its intention when they’re not going to market it to the patient.