Pissed I did my speech on pharmaceutical companies but here it is....

Big Pharma, Big Problems

Meet John Doe, an average American teenager attending Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky. For as long as he can remember, every morning after John wakes up and completes his daily rituals, he ventures downstairs in his exhausted state. Stumbling into the kitchen, John meets his mom who lovingly prepares him toaster waffles, a glass of orange juice, and three pills that he ingests every day without questions. The first pill, a small white tablet, he knows to be an allergy-relieving antihistamine called Zyrtec, and the next, Solodyn, helps prevent his acne from breaking out. The third and final pill he swallows on a daily basis he refers to as Vioxx. Vioxx lessens the pain of Jonh’s arthritis, an odd disease to obtain at his young age, but nonetheless it eases the aching and allows an easier life for John. Sure, John constantly notices the, “Rare cases [in which] serious stomach problems such as bleeding can occur,” Mentioned on the commercials, but John had confidence that this definitely didn’t apply to him. Therefore, John stunned his family, friends, and peers when, on August 30^th, 2004, John suffered from a fatal heart attack in the middle of his AP English class. A month after John’s tragic death, Merck, the producer of Vioxx, recalled the drug due to, “A serious increase in cardiovascular conditions 18 months after initially taking Vioxx.” This serious increase was later proved to be a quadrupled risk of heart attack and stroke, which killed a total of approximately 150,000 ignorant Americans. To put this in perspective, that’s 150,000 deaths that would not have occurred if those people had chosen to take Alleve instead. Moreover, Merck, as well as the FDA, were found guilty of full comprehension of these intense side effects more than two years before Vioxx’s recall. This therefore proves that although Merck knew that people across the country were dying directly because of Vioxx, they couldn’t take one of their most profitable drugs off the market until ordered to do so, and the FDA decided to turn a blind eye. The Vioxx scandal rocked not only Big Pharma, the most powerful of the pharmaceutical corporations, but also millions of peoples’ everyday lives. However, the most terrifying aspect of it all is that the corruption depicted here only reaches the tip of the iceberg. Through creating and exploiting illness as well as excessively and deceptively advertising, the profit-hungry pharmaceutical industry cannot be trusted with issues as sensitive as our health.

By lowering guidelines and standards, experts are constantly changing the definition illness. Yet, of these nine “experts” in control of defining health for the FDA, and other organizations, six of them were found to have financial ties to Big Pharma. The effects of altering the principles of disease are widespread. Ailments such as Social Anxiety Disorder, which almost everyone can relate to, are created solely because once popular drugs, such as Paxil in Social Anxiety’s case, become out of style and Big Pharma needs new markets to re-sell old drugs. For instance, Prozac, once used to treat depression, became unpopular. Therefore producers soon changed its color to purple, renamed it Saraphegm, and “discovered” a new condition called pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, or “PMDD.” They then priced Saraphegm three times higher than Prozac for being the “only medication to treat PMDD” and reaped the benefits of monopolizing a large, untapped market. Furthermore, guidelines have recently been changed for the FDA to approve any drug that proves itself better than a placebo, or sugar pill, in a trial, therefore allowing countless drugs to be approved for diseases they really can’t cure or even help. Yet, this blatant exploitation of the innate human fear of disease could not be possible without constant advertising.

Advertising has long been associated with the companies of Big Pharma. Just look at the percentage of Americans who recognize names such as Cialis, Claritin, and Lunesta to see examples of constant public advertising. However, most people don’t understand that by watching more commercials, day-time TV specials, and endorsements on prescription medication, people begin to think that they need these medicines to cure diseases that they don’t have. Additionally, the public doesn’t view the behind-the-scenes advertising towards medical professionals that rakes in the most income. In clinics and hospitals, almost all of the products are branded pharmaceuticals, and the showering of gifts such as vacations, stethoscopes, etc. only improve doctor-pharmaceutical relations. The safe harbor, or loophole, that allows this advertising is that Big Pharma’s advertising is “educational” because they’re educating doctors about their drugs. Moreover, their most potent weapon towards medical professionals is the free samples that always come with “educational” information books and pamphlets. These free samples not only “educate” doctors, but they also hook the doctor’s patients on these drugs, creating massive profits for Big Pharma. Additionally, Big Pharma spends billions of dollars, lobbying, influencing, and basically buying legislation on Capitol Hills across the country in order to protect and promote their industry. Furthermore, their stranglehold on the FDA is shown through the lax regulations of deceptive advertising and the blind eye turned towards Big Pharma’s control over the research done on their own drugs, the data they choose to collect from the research they do, and then the publication they pay journals to print. Through this control, Big Pharma basically manages all aspects of the research process, allowing them to manipulate data to put their products in a better light. Finally, through this corrupt advertising system Big Pharma receives billions of dollars in profits all at the physical expense of their consumers.

In conclusion, I invite you to join me in questioning the wisdom of relying on a profit-hungry industry in dealing with issues as sensitive as our health. We have all of the facts needed to end the corrupt system that is Big Pharma, all we need to do is educate the American public to take action against the drugs that are taking control of their lives.

Bibliography:

Big Bucks, Big Pharma. Prod. Ronit Ridberg. :: Download Free Political Documentaries And Watch Many Interesting, Controversial Free Documentary Films On That You Wont Find On The TV! ::. Media Education Foundation, 2006. Web. 08 Aug. 2011. .

Vioxx / Merck. Advertisement. YouTube. 8 Aug. 2010. 10 Aug. 2011. .

Bornstein, David. “Helping New Drugs Out of Research’s ‘Valley of Death’” New York Times [New York] 2 May 2011.