Why Your Doctor Should Reveal Biases And Pharma Ties

"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

Woodroof shouted at the FDA during a town hall meeting “People are dying. And y’all up there are afraid that we’re gonna find an alternative without you.” This was Woodroof’s way of saying that the FDA only backs up the pharmaceutical companies because they will give the FDA incentive to put the stamp of approval on their product. “You see the pharma companies pay the FDA to push their product. They don’t want to see my research. I don’t have enough cash in my pocket to make it worth their while” he explained. This is the error the patients see in the American healthcare system, the FDA was hesitant to license new drug therapies and also didn’t want to let patient’s tryout with their own medications. AIDS patients felt like they were denied access to life-saving drugs by an insensitive federal government. Author of the book, HIV and The blood Supply, Lauren B. Leveton suggested that “The evaluation of policy decisions and actions taken over a decade ago is a problematic enterprise.” Even Woodroof’s doctor has concerns about the pharma company that makes AZT when she asks another doctor “Doesn’t it drive you a little bit crazy to see these guys talking about curing the sick while flashing their gold

Bell continued to interview a journalist named Greg Critser, who authored the book “Generation RX,” which is about the relationship between America and pharmaceuticals. He exclaims that drug companies advertise their product so much that it internalizes inside individuals that the drugs they’re selling are good and not poison, then he continued where the drug is somewhat of a poison where it kills another thing off to benefit another. Pharmaceutical companies also lobby the political side of their ambitions to cover up the negative side of their

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

Washington, H. A. (2011). Flacking for Big Pharma: Drugmakers Don't Just Compromise Doctors; They Also Undermine the Top Medical Journals and Skew the Findings of Medical Research. (cover story). American Scholar, 80(3), 22. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Gwen Olsen, a pharmaceutical sales woman has confessed that after fifteen years of selling drugs, she lied to doctors in order to make obscene profits for the “unethical” drug companies she worked for; major names you would immediately recognize that I’m not going to post here. In her tell-all book: Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher, she says, “There is no such thing as a safe drug,. I was being encouraged to minimize side effects when I talked to doctors… the misinformation,

Historically, physicians are more respected by the public’s dependence on their expertise more so than their experience with social and policy issues. Take for instance; physicians are already advocates for their patients’ health. Patients benefit from not only a physician’s professional medical advice, but also, when it comes to trying to get insurance approvals, often times the physician will be of a support. Overall, physicians play a huge role in patients’ healthcare for not only servicing them, but educating them as well. There is a constant communication with the patient-physician relationship. But even with a strong patient-physician relationship it is the social determinants

Last Week Tonight is a satirical news show that tackles serious social issues, and is anchored by John Oliver. Oliver has recently released a 17 minute episode that investigates the conflict of interest involved with pharmaceutical companies advertising to doctors. The purpose of this comedic examination was to unveil the unethical marketing techniques and the secret deals of the Pharmaceutical companies. He also sheds light on the doctor’s roles in this pharmaceutical lobby. Oliver uses an array of referential jokes to persuade and entertain the audience.

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.

They manipulate just as much as doctors and Big Pharma do and become part of the problem to the degree to which they become sucked into the culture that looks to drugs for the answers” (Zorach, 2011, pg. 1).

But the question still remains, how has ethics become involved in the pharmaceutical Industry? To understand this better, I will briefly talk about the history of the industry. In the late 19th and early 20th century key discoveries, such as insulin and penicillin, were made. These medicines were needed in large quantities, and thus allowed major companies that we know today to begin the mass-manufacture and distribution of these. In order to test and approve drugs and to require appropriate labeling legislation was enacted. As the pharmaceutical industry grew, prescription and nonprescription drugs became legally distinguished from one another.

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

In the TEDMED speech “What your doctor won’t disclose” by Dr. Leana Wen, she uses ethos, pathos, and logos effectively in order to make patients aware of their doctor’s openness and how doctors are influenced by drug companies. She talked about how doctors should be open and trustworthy with their patients and she created a website to add some transparency between patients and doctors, but she got backlash from many doctors. Dr. Wen gave a passionate and informative speech to the audience by using emotional, logical and by using her credentials to help inform everyone about gaining more information about their doctors. She wants the wall between doctors and patients to fall down instead of being built higher.

Though it is common knowledge that pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and biomedicine are all interconnected, Ordinary Medicine gives insight to the degree of power

Pharmaceutical companies should attempt to be as transparent as possible when marketing prescription drugs to the public. Their marketing efforts should not only convey the benefits of the prescription drug, but also easily convey the possible risks associated with the prescription drugs. Many patients may tend to think the benefits outweigh the potential risks of prescription drugs and may pressure their physician to prescribe it. Due to the way the prescription drug is marketed, the consumer may believe the