Thursday, April 23, 2009
In 2008, two York University researchers published a paper called “The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States.” The paper showed that United States pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising their products (24 percent) than on researching new ones (13 percent).
Many in the health care industry are growing concerned with the increasing relationship between pharmaceutical representatives and physicians. Pharmaceutical representatives approach doctors, leave gifts and buy lunches, all the while promoting their company’s newest drug. And when the patient sees the doctor signing the prescription with a pen advertising that same drug being given, the conflict of interest is clearly unsettling. Moving the interest of a medical doctor away from the health of the patient and toward the looming spectre of personal financial gain is troubling, and it becomes easy to blame “Big Pharma” for health care profiteering.
But one cannot place all the blame on the companies that develop and sell these drugs. These companies are still responsible for the development of novel drugs to continue to better treat a wide variety of illnesses, and the only way they can fund such a research endeavor is if they profit from their existing drugs.
Additionally, it is in the companies’ best interest to maintain the well-being of their customers and the quality of their products. History has shown that the recall of “bad” drugs, such as Vioxx or Phen-Fen, have the potential to cost these companies billions of dollars.
The real solution for restoring good science to the health care system lies with doctors and scientists. When a pharmaceutical representative tries to sell a physician on prescribing a new drug for all of his or her patients, it is the doctor’s responsibility to determine the true scientific validity of the drug. Doctors should have the professional skill to understand the scientific research behind every drug they prescribe, and thus determine which patients should receive it.
The patient should also be engaged in understanding what drugs they are receiving and why. KU students are extremely fortunate when it comes to this kind of patient education. Using the KU Libraries services, students have access to a huge number of scientific and medical journals. This level of access is comparable to that of physicians themselves. If a student is uneasy about the safety and efficacy of a treatment or just wants to learn more, he or she has the resources to do so.
By increasing their understanding of their personal health care, patients can better understand and communicate with their doctors. This, combined with good scientific judgment on the part of the physician, can help negate any negative influence by the medical industry.
The pharmaceutical companies may not be entirely innocent, but the true responsibility for providing safe and effective health care rests upon the individual physician.
— Folmsbee is Topeka junior in neurobiology.
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Comments
Folmsbee: Doctors just as responsible for safe drugs as ‘Big Pharma’
See, maybe my past and present doctors are just unusual but they have never prescribed for me anything I don't actually need to take in order to live a healthy day-to-day life, like my asthma meds. Maybe there are docs out there who are script happy and "big pharm"-bought, but I have yet to meet one. Also, the free pens? If a doctor can be coerced into prescribing something because they get a free clicky pen, he or she is probably under the age of twelve.
Folmsbee: Doctors just as responsible for safe drugs as ‘Big Pharma’
occrea, Dougie Howser M.D. would have a word with you. click
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