Have Drug Companies Been Inventing Diseases?
Last year, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry made $450 billion in sales. That’s over twice the revenue generated by all European drug companies combined. There’s no denying that drugs are big business in the U.S., with almost 70% of the population being on at least one prescription drug.
Unfortunately, some of the bestselling medications may be wholly unnecessary for the majority of people who take them. Even worse, some of these drugs might even be for illnesses that were exaggerated or manufactured by the drug companies themselves.
Inventing Illness
According to Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, a professor of pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center, some pharmaceutical companies have been downright scamming consumers. For decades these companies have been taking benign, everyday conditions and repackaging them as new diseases. GERD, osteopenia, “low-T,” female sexual dysfunction, and restless leg syndrome are all examples of commonplace issues that have been relabeled as diseases or disorders for the sake of marketing drugs to Americans en masse. Said Dr. Fugh-Berman, “Marketing for a drug can start 7 to 10 years before it goes on the market. Because it’s illegal to promote a drug before it goes on the market, what they’re promoting is the disease. That’s not illegal to do because there’s no regulation on creating diseases.”
“Disease Awareness” Campaigns
Over recent years, “disease awareness” campaigns have cropped up across the Internet and in radio and TV ads. These campaigns will often include quizzes or checklists for people suffering vague symptoms, convincing those who take them that they could benefit from the drugs that certain pharmaceutical companies are marketing. For example, they’ll ask men over 50 if they have less energy than they used to—then suggest this could be due to "low-T" rather than the fact that people over 50 can often have less energy than they used to.
Clever marketing has become a mainstay of pharmaceutical sales, with an estimated $19 spent on marketing for every $1 spent on drug development. Given the expense of new medications, often on the grounds of high development costs, this speaks volumes as to where certain drug companies’ priorities actually stand.
Dangerous Business
These campaigns launched by drug companies convince people that their drugs are as medically necessary as those used to treat more serious conditions, and some have even left people sicker for taking them. For example, millions of women were told they should take medications designed for osteoporosis patients when they showed signs of “osteopenia,” or minor thinning of the bones. In the long term, many of them ended up suffering a rare, and very serious, bone break along the femur caused specifically by the medication.
Be Informed
The next time you see an ad or a quiz geared around symptoms you may be experiencing, ask yourself how serious your symptoms really are. Is it likely that what you’re experiencing is just part of being human, or perhaps managed with diet or other lifestyle considerations? Pharmaceuticals have helped countless people, and they do have their place, but do we need all of them? Chances are, not everyone does.
Other Sources:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Lessons-From-a-Professor-s/240404
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