Here is some info about the pharmaceutical industry:

Since the FDA first allowed companies to directly target consumers five years ago the number of research and development (R&D) employees at companies making patented drugs declined slightly, while the number of people working in marketing shot up 59 percent.

Moreover, drug companies have learned that when they can’t create a new drug to treat an existing illness, they can create a new illness to treat with existing drugs. GlaxoSmithKline’s multimillion-dollar promotion of anxiety disorder as a pernicious national problem enabled the company to make billions more selling Paxil–a drug most experts believe is needed by only a small fraction of the people who take it. Unimed is busy pushing the idea that there’s a national problem called male menopause–a problem that just happens to be treatable by a testosterone gel the company makes. The gel is currently FDA-approved for men with rare–and thus relatively unprofitable–problems such as underdeveloped testes.

An existing patent can be extended if a different use can be found for the original drug. This leads to a lot of legal wrangling about the definition of different. “Companies today have found that the return on investment for legal tactics is a lot higher than the return on investment for R&D,” says Sharon Levine, the associate executive director of the HMO Kaiser Permanente. “Consumers today are paying an inordinate premium under the guise of the creating the stream of innovation in the future. But it’s actually funding lawyers.”

Pharmaceutical companies are shifting focus away from disease treating drugs to drugs that enhance sub-optimal conditions. Soon there will be a drug for every discomforting mood. Everytime we feel less than perfect there will be a pill to return us to that unreachable ‘optimal human condition’. Such life enhancing drugs often have the peculiar distinction of treating the same symptoms that the drug itself can create through side effects.

My dad takes Claritin. I went to the pharmacy with mom to fill the prescription: 100 bucks for 30 pills. I know a bit about the FDA approval process. For a new drug to be considered for a patent it needs to perform better than existing drugs or perform the same and have fewer side effects. Claritin and Allegra fall into the second category and there is debate as to whether they even bring fewer side effects (there is also debate as to whether they work at all). Bottom Line: This shit is no different than stuff that’s been on the market for years….it just costs a hell of a lot more money.

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