The Epidemic Of The Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most powerful and greedy industries in our country, with a goal to make as large a profit as possible, at the expense of the sick.

"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in

Sweeping the nation on a mass caliber is the opioid crisis. Stories have been depicted by every news channel across the nation on the crisis that has destroyed countless individuals lives. According Alanna Semuels's article, "Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?", she reports the fault of the calamity. Semuels points out that the perpetrator of this utterly horrendous plague is the doctors who have over-prescribed medication, as well as the pharmaceutical industry. This crisis has been slowly evolving over the past decades but is only now making its way into the mainstream media headlines. The pharmaceutical industry has been steadily infiltrated its' way into all arrangements of healthcare in the sole pursuit of gaining

On November 21, 2013, Theanna Khou pleaded guilty to dispensing and selling OxyContin from his Huntington Pharmacy without medical necessity from fraudulent prescriptions issued by a clinic (" Health care fraud investigations," 2014). Khou billed Medicare for filling prescriptions that patients never received. This story is becoming a norm for the health care industry, because the growing financial prosperity of the health industry. Corruption and crime is changing, turning from drug dealing to a safer haven that has less legal management, organization, and more wherewithal the business of health care fraud.

The drug epidemic in America is a growing problem and continuing to take hundreds of lives everyday, particularly opioids. These highly addictive drugs are taking the world by storm and claiming thousands of life with no remorse. The pharmaceutical industry is making millions off the addiction and pain of the American people causing a widespread of drug overdoses and deaths all across the United States. According to The New York Times, “Public Health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,00 people in 2015.” (Scott Morgan) Addiction, money, and the vulnerability all play a part in the opioid widespread epidemic.

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.

Getting involved with opioids now days seem fairly easy, our young ones are becoming addicted to these medications because our doctors don’t care. Doctors are just signing off prescriptions left and right. But in reality physicians have responsibilities, such as obtaining physical examination, a medical history, develop a written treatment plan for their patients, and comply with controlled substances laws and regulations. In a lot of cases doctors don’t want to deal with their patients so they will just prescribed medications to get people in and out of the office, to keep up with their hectic schedule, and don’t want to find the root of the cause, or maybe they just don’t have the time. Other ways to get opioids include within relatives, visits out of the country, pharmacy and hospital theft, and “stealing from grandma’s cabinet” (Inciardi, Surratt, Kurtz, and Cicero 2007). Despite the overload of opioids in our country almost 80% of the world 's population today has no access to morphine. And an estimated 33 million people, need specialized medical care but have no access to even basic care and symptom control. This terrible lack of pain relief can be attributed to our governments need to control and regulation.

In the modern age of technological and medical advancements such as organ transplants and robotic limbs, Americans have developed unrealistic expectations about prescription drugs. The false belief that the right pill in the right dosage can cure all has led to a national epidemic: over prescription. Since the 1970s, the average American’s expenditure on prescription drugs has doubled because not only are new treatments for almost every ailment now available, but they are also aggressively advertised on television, the internet, and social media. At the same time that the American population confronts health issues associated with rising age, obesity, and stress levels, prescription drugs promise a quick fix for everything from depression to acne to insomnia leading to a one pill fix all.

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.

I was disturbed by the article I read on Medscape because many lives were affected by this physician action. Dr. Fata is an oncologist practicing in Detroit, Michigan who became rich administering excessive or unnecessary chemotherapy to hundreds of patients even to those individuals who did not have cancer (Lowes, 2015). According to federal prosecutors, the excessive and unnecessary treatment, which went beyond chemotherapy was part of a massive criminal scheme that netted at least $17 million from Medicare and private insurers (Lowes, 2015). Dr. Fata performed each actions deliberately which was unethical. He took an oath to provide prudent care to the public which he fail short doing by affecting 553 patients. Besides affecting those individuals

On september 2nd 2011, a Twenty-four year old man from cincinnati named Kyle Willis´ fell victim to the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry(Gann, Carrie). Willis had a severe toothache on his wisdom tooth that resulted in its extraction. After the surgery, Willis´s face started to swell and was sent to the emergency room. He was prescribed antibiotic medications and also painkillers in order to follow standard recovery procedure. Kyle Willis’ could not afford both drugs so he just purchased the pain killers because of the swellings unbearable pain. The infection continued to spread into his brain which lead to severe brain swelling and eventually Kyle Willis’ death. Kyle Willis’ died because he could not afford the medication that would have saved his life. There are many other people that can 't afford the drugs they need, which results them losing their lives. According to harvard studies, over 45,000 people annually die due to lack of health care coverage(Harvard Gazette). According to their studies, those who are privately insured have 40% chance less of dying than those who have insufficient funds(Harvard Gazette). The monopoly and corruption of the pharmaceutical industry is un-american and inhumane because it causes the middle class to not receive the help they need to recover.

Drug overdoses have quadrupled since 1999 and are still happening. Prescription drug crisis has caused families to not see each other anymore. Prescription drugs are overpowering the United States and need to be stopped. The crisis has gotten out of hand so bad that people are starting to change their living.

"The boundaries between academic medicine — medical schools, teaching hospitals, and their faculty — and the pharmaceutical industry have been dissolving since the 1980s, and the important differences between their missions are becoming blurred. Medical research, education, and clinical practice have suffered as a result"

Although prescription drugs are more regulated than over-the-counter medications, prescription drug addiction does still occur. This is somewhat surprising considering you'll need a prescription from a doctor, dentist, or optometrist for the medication.

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.