The Dangers of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Lobbyist interference from multi-million dollar pharmaceutical companies has heavily influenced Washington lawmakers’ policymaking. These pharmaceutical companies have their hand in much of the United States lawmaking practice. These powerful corporations stand to make a lot of money from the sale of drug testing supplies and services to the U.S. government. Macdonald reports:

With access to prescription drugs, people are able to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses. These drugs help deal with pain, inability to sleep, depression, and much more. Every day we are increasingly living in a world where there is better living through chemicals. However, what most do not seem to see is the rising tide of pain, illness, and ultimately death being caused by the pills people take every day. Most keep drugs in a special place in their minds, where they see them as harmless. Sadly, this is not the case, and in some cases our prescription drugs can be just as harmful as illegal drugs (King 68).

The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such.

The twenty-first century has seen pharmaceutical companies grow in unprecedented size and strength. Due to the unprecedented growth the larger pharmaceutical companies have gained leverage and power in the prescription drug industry, but they lack innovation to market and they seek ways to help the business continue to increase its profits. The pharmaceutical industry was once ethically sound and was a valuable player in the development of human health. However, overtime with the lack of innovation pharmaceutical companies are becoming an unethical market that exploits patients, doctors and anyone else it can to increase its profitability. With eyes only on profitability this can create a hazard for patients because there

A new escalating drug abuse epidemic has come about in the recent years; people are now choosing prescription pills as their new drug of choice. The use, abuse and death caused by prescription drugs has increased significantly within the past couple years. All types of prescription pills are more easily accessible from their doctors, family members or off the street. Doctors are handing out prescriptions for pills, such as pain management pills, muscle relaxers, and anti-anxiety, like they are candy and not potentially dangerous to the consumers. In today’s society doctors are over prescribing pills to Americans and the prescription pill distribution should be more closely monitored and controlled. Although there are people who benefit

The misuse of opioids has been around for over 20 years in the United States. In a 2017 article “Opioid Crisis”, it states that in the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies misled healthcare providers by informing them that patients would not become addicted to opioid painkillers. As a result, healthcare providers too liberally prescribed opioid pain relievers. Opioid abuse rates started to climb and it was clear that these medications were highly addictive. According to Volkow, Frieden, Hyde, and Cha (2014), between 1990 and 2010 death rates from prescription opioid overdose quadrupled in the United States. This surpassed the death rates from cocaine and heroin overdoses combined. Furthermore, they state that the epidemic is a result

In the video Escape Fire, I was so flabbergasted by the numbers and health outcomes we as a society have let our nation become. One of the most heart-wrenching evidence is, even though our health care industry is so expensive our health outcomes are the worse. 75% of disabilities and dead’s are preventable, according to the film.

Amongst those who become addicted to misusing their drugs and people readily taking advantage of this situation, there is an irrefutable and profitable market. Due to the growing accessibility and faulty restrictions on prescriptions, almost anyone can acquire opioids, and there is a large population of patients that sell their medication rather than use it. An article by Celine Gouder entitled “Who Is Responsible for the Pain-Pill Epidemic?” reports her experience with a cancer patient. According to Gouder, her patient "was selling his prescription narcotics to help support his wife and himself," and when hospitalized, overdosed when his medicine was actually administered to him. Though the legality of sharing, trading, and selling prescription medication is heavily restricted, the penalties for doing so are almost never applied, which fosters growth in these illegal activities. According to the CDC’s “Prescribing Data,” on opioid overdose:

Illegal drugs such as Heroin, Cocaine, and Meth, along with countless other narcotics place a heavy burden on the population of the United States, with an emphasis of distress on the youth. These drugs are extremely deadly. In 2014, 17,465 people died from overdoses in the United States alone. These drugs are illegal, and evidently for a very good cause. Transition The only problem is that there is an even deadlier factor that exist in today 's modern society, and that problem exists in the form of prescriptions written to millions of people each year from certified and legal doctors. In 2014 the same year stated above, 25,760 people in the United States died from overdoses from drugs that they received legally and often with good intentions, from family doctors that they know and trust (Bellware). That is over 8,000 more people dying from prescription drugs compared to illegal drugs. Prescription drug abuse is a problem in the United States and it is fueled by famous individuals, promotions by pharmaceutical companies and by doctors.

Market failure appears when there is a failure in allocation of goods and services. When the market is unsuccessful, the government is called to intervene and correct the failure. Over the years, government participation in the pharmaceutical market has been more wide-ranging than any other good or service. With the government’s ability to regulate, mandate, inform, finance and provide, their intervention to overcome market failure can be beneficial for the economy. Market failure plays a significant role in today’s economy.

Traditional doctors prescribe their patients all types of drugs to treat conditions and diseases. Most people trust their physicians to give them the best care possible, but many doctors prescribe and recommend medications based on their relationship with a company. Pharmaceutical companies pay doctors or even provide meals, in exchange for meetings and education. In an article from Time Magazine from September 18, 2014, Your Doctor Should Reveal Biases and Pharma Ties, Says Group, author Alexandra Sifferlin explains the issue with these relationships. Sifferlin uses ethos, logos, pathos, and links to respectable websites to convince readers that patients should be made aware by their physicians of ties pharmaceutical companies and their positions of controversial practices.

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

Rising drug price is a typical issue in the business world and is closely related to ethical questions. The article named “Mylan CEO Faces Tough Questioning in Congressional EpiPen Hearing” from the business section of Wall Street Journal revealed the ethical issues behind the rising price of drugs. Over the past 9 years, Mylan raised the price of EpiPen which is an emergency treatment for allergy 17 times by nearly 548%. Although Mylan’s CEO argues that the company actually profits far less than the list price, their behavior should be considered unethical. As a health company, Mylan has the responsibility to improve patients’ living conditions and saving their lives. However, the dramatic increase in the price of an originally inexpensive

Society expects drug companies to improve people’s well-being and to behave like a nonprofit company not overly concerned with making large profits. However, investors

Yes, there is an impact on the pharmaceutical company, like those in the US as a result of differential prices between that country and other nations.