Prescription Drug Advertising [Archive]

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HBox

05-11-2005, 06:58 PM

I can kind of see the point
of advertising drugs for common ailments, like high blood pressure or
high cholesterol. We obviously have some health problems in this
country, and those two ailments are very common, so I can see that drug
companies could conceivably be doing something good by getting the word
out about their drugs.And then there's what happened the last
time I went to the doctor. I have a serious condition, and in the last
decade there was a drug developed that was made specifically for my
disease. It has been incredibly useful, I can't imagine goign without
it. I certainly hope the people who developed it got insanely rich. And
when you hear the price of the drug, I can't imagine that they didn't. 
However, it has reached just about 100% of the people who need
it. It's only used for people with my disease. There are no other
current uses for other conditions. And if someone with my disease isn't
on it, either their doctor is a fraud or they have some serious side
effects. There is no reason to advertise this drug.So I walk
into my doctor's office and I see a huge pile of day planners,
organizers, calendars and other shit. On it is plastered the name of
that aformentioned drug. Nothing dawns on me yet, and one of the nurses
offers me a day planner and an organzier. I take them.Days later
I wonder why the fuck I have these things. There's no reason to
advertise the drug. I'm sure doctors all over the country got stack of
this shit, and I can only imagine why. I shudder at how much this stuff
costs. It's all a waste! And the I realize that I'm, or my insurance
company, is essentially paying for it. This is not a cheap drug. This
is how much it costs for a 3 month supply, and keep in mind somebody without insurance would
likely pay more than my insurance company's pharmacy negotiated for:
$8267.04. (I'm very lucky. I only have to pay a $30 co-pay on this.)
This has become an essential drug in treating my illness. There is no
purpose to the advertising. It's a waste of money, adding to the cost
of an already insanely expensive indispensible drug.I really
don't want to bash the company that made that drug. They have exteneded
the life expectancy of everyone who uses the drug. They have a program
where they give the drug to people who can't afford it. But I can't
comprehend the waste of money that is advertising this drug. There's no
payback. Either you need it or you don't, and if you have even a barely
adequate doctor he/she will prescribe it for you.It's
ridiculous, and it happens with just about every drug. You see all the
pens and calendars and notepads and post its with drug names all over
them everytime you go to the doctor. It's a reason why drugs are so
damn expensive. And it's what happens when health care is more a
business than anything else.

<img border="0" src="http://img255.echo.cx/img255/5972/mariosig8fk.jpg" />

This message was edited by HBox on 5-11-05 @ 10:59 PM

Alice S. Fuzzybutt

05-11-2005, 07:02 PM

I needed to see a shrink once.I got booted for the doc to see a salesperson.I trust nothing they give me. Especially when I look at the time and see a Lexapro clock and I'm signing my check with a Wellbutrin pen.

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"We sound just like Cheap Trick only the guitars are louder,"
- Kurt Cobain

"I prefer to listen to Cheap Trick."
-Homer Simpson

Snoogans

05-11-2005, 08:18 PM

i dont know whether to be angry or sad after reading that 

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spoon

05-11-2005, 10:44 PM

That was actually funny Snoogs.As for the ads, they are proven to GENERATE profits, not loose money.  Many times, people don't realize what they actually have, or just don't know there is a new drug out there for their condition.  It just so happens that studies show drug costs constitute less than 10% of health care costs, while lowering exacerbations in so many different conditions which would have led to ER visits, hospitalizations, and or deaths.  In actuality, the overall effect of these high priced drugs save billions in health care costs.  I don't have the actual facts in front of me so they aren't exact, but pharma has all the right in the world to advertise THEIR products.  If there is a competitor on the market, or many, ads have had great influence in bringing patients into their doctors offices and specifically ask about the advertised drug.  Over 50% of the time the physician writes for the drug that the patient inquires about.  Patients are extremely well informed these days, and simply promoting to physicians would be pure stupidity.  There are many other factors that drive the price of drugs up.  Ads and swag aren't one of them.  Ultimately, it helps bring the price down.  <img src="http://members.aol.com/dxixrxt/spoon2.jpg" border="0" /> Get your balls out of your purse and step up to flavor! With whale cancer! F yeah! 

This message was edited by spoon on 5-12-05 @ 2:47 AM

monsterone

05-11-2005, 11:18 PM

<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/11/news/fortune500/generic/">http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/11/news/fortune500/generic/</a>

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violent thoughts & prayers

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spoon

05-12-2005, 02:54 AM

Hey M1, not sure what your point was? 

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Get your balls out of your purse and step up to flavor!
With whale cancer!
F yeah!

HBox

05-12-2005, 07:39 PM

quote:
As for the ads, they are proven to GENERATE profits, not loose money.

 
How can you prove that? Advertising drugs
makes little sense to me. Either you need drugs, or you don't. Most of
these drug commercials, ones for cholesterol drugs in particular,
strike me as trying to convince the viewer that they need them, and
I've seen articles written that say doctors are feeling pressured to
prescribe drugs for people coming in asking for them. People aren't
educated enough where they can start prescribing themselves their own
medication. Bill Maher makes a great point about this; you shouldn't go
in telling your doctor anything other than how you feel.
Furthermore,
if people who don't need medication are prescribed it anyway, it might
be good for the drug companies, but it's bad for the rest of us.
Insurance costs go up for everyone. Which illustrates the point: Drug
companies are corporations driven by profit first. Sometimes that leads
that leads to situations where they don't act in the interest of sick
people. There are at least 3 pills to make your dick hard. The article
M1 posted show how drug companies, when one of their drugs is about to
be available as a generic, they make a slight alteration to the
formulation, barely improving the drug if at all, and market the hell
out of it. It makes them money, but does it help
people? 


<img border="0" src="http://img255.echo.cx/img255/5972/mariosig8fk.jpg" />

This message was edited by HBox on 5-12-05 @ 11:40 PM

Recyclerz

05-12-2005, 09:12 PM

I used to work for a company that had a big pharma biz but it got busted up and I don't anymore so I guess I can tell the truth about this stuff.There are two main types of marketing Big Pharma uses. The older is the kind H-Box & Alice described: Hiring young, good-looking salespeople to go boreass Drs. into writing more scripts for that Co.'s drugs. The trinkets they hand out are designed just to keep the name of the drugs visible & omnipresent.  This kind of marketing works and is less expensive overall.  The second kind is the big media buys (TV, radio,print) for the potential "blockbusters"; pills that a big fraction of the population needs or can be made to think they need. Think acid reflux, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, limp noodles, etc.  This type of marketing is very expensive (hundreds of millions $ for the names you hear all the time) but the potential sales are in the billions if the marketing works, and it usually does. They don't spend the big marketing bucks on the kind of niche treatments H-Box is describing but they keep the price high.Pharma has among the highest profit margins of any bizness even after all the R&D spending. (Software, mostly Microsoft, has similar margins.)  This is because, once a drug is approved, the gross profit is like 95%.  It is very expensive to invent a drug and to get it approved but the risk/reward ratio is heavily tilted towards reward.  It's also a fact that the global pharma companies make most of their profits in the US because we have the only health care system where the federal government won't negotiate with them to lower prices.  And Big Pharma spends boku bucks on political influence to keep it that way.They also spend big bucks trying to keep generics off the market as indicated in the article M-1 linked. When they can't they twist the formulas a li' bit and come up with new patented products they market the hell out of, even if the new drugs don't work any better, as H-Box said. Nexium (replacing Prilosec) and Clarinex (replacing Claritan) are the current biggest examples of this phenomenon.Let's see, what else do I remember...  Oh yeah - Pharma sales reps really know how to party. <img src="http://www.ronfez.net/messageboard/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/thumbup.gif" border="0" /><img src="http://www.hometown.aol.com/recyclerz/myhomepage/sigpic1.gif?mtbrand=AOL_US" border="0" /> There ain't no asylum here. King Solomon, he never lived 'round here

This message was edited by Recyclerz on 5-13-05 @ 1:19 AM

monsterone

05-12-2005, 09:44 PM

quote: Hey M1, not sure what your point was?  <img src="http://members.aol.com/dxixrxt/spoon2.jpg" border="0" /> Get your balls out of your purse and step up to flavor! With whale cancer! F yeah! to be cliched and quote chris rock (sort of), "drug companies aren't trying to ,make you bettter. the money is in the medicine." i'm sure many of the drugs, ie. psychotropic, diet, antibiotics are really needed, 50% of the time.  but if you know a pharm sales person, you know they get loot from getting a dr to use their drug.  the fda is bullshit- they are recalling a bunch of drugs, that took 100's of millions to get on the market- the mob doesn;t have it that good. 

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violent thoughts & prayers

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Yerdaddy

05-13-2005, 07:04 AM

<a href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&resultsStart=1&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=+numberfield1,+stringfield1&resultsSortCategoryName=rank&category1=Fortune+Type&searchParameter1=14Str||PatCS||Medical+Barons&category2=category&searchParameter2=unset" target="_blank">18 of Forbes' 400 richest Americans are what Forbes classifies as "Medical Barons."</a> For what it's worth.

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Fuck it from behind.

HBox

05-13-2005, 11:13 PM

Just wanted to add an
amendment to my original story. I really should have actually looked at
these things I got before I exploded about how I had no idea why they
would be made. Turns out the day planner and organizer are specially
printed and designed for people with my condition; the day planner, in
addition to all the standard stuff, has special listings for doctor's
appointments and drug schedules and the organizer has specially printed
inserts so you can organize the shitload of paperwork you have from
insurance form, doctor's vills, drug bills and the like. So while I
actually understand the purpose of this, and appreciate the sentiment,
I still think its a waste. I'd rather they just took the money they
used for it and just slashed the prices a bit. 

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/5972/mariosig8fk.jpg

HBox

05-13-2005, 11:22 PM

quote:
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=54&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&resultsStart=1&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=+numberfield1,+stringfield1&resultsSortCategoryName=rank&category1=Fortune+Type&searchParameter1=14Str%7C%7CPatCS%7C%7CMedical+Bar ons&category2=category&searchParameter2=unset">18 of Forbes' 400 richest Americans are what Forbes classifies as "Medical Barons."</a> For what it's worth. 

 
And only 39 people on that list are on there because of inheritance. Damn shame. Thank god we got rid of the estate tax. 

http://img255.echo.cx/img255/5972/mariosig8fk.jpg

El Mudo

05-14-2005, 01:13 AM

I used to work in a pharmacy, and it was always a treat when the drug reps would come in...these chicks were always insanely good looking....

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FMJeff

05-15-2005, 09:50 PM

Advertising (specifically branding) a drug DOES increase sales. As competition amongst pharmaceutical companies increase, many companies are starting to offer drugs that treat the same medical issues. Thus, marketing firms resort to branding to build a strong image that the doctor/patients remembers. Many patients even ask for the drug by name as they come for appointments. And you know an advertising campaign is effective when you notice the difference in gross revenues before and after the campaign is released as being significantly better.Even a company like McDonalds, who's brand name is ubiquitous and synonmous with fast food continues to advertise thier products. It's not so much to generate sales but to keep people associating McDonalds with fast food...advertising drills that message home...McDonalds with fast food...McDonalds with fast food..Viagra for soft Dick..Viagra for soft Dick...

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It made my heart sing.

Alice S. Fuzzybutt

05-15-2005, 10:12 PM

Many patients even ask for the drug by name as they come for appointments. True, but an educated doctor will not give a patient a prescription willy nilly.

<IMG SRC=http://home.comcast.net/~stan_ferguson/alicesig.jpg>

"We sound just like Cheap Trick only the guitars are louder,"
- Kurt Cobain

"I prefer to listen to Cheap Trick."
-Homer Simpson

El Mudo

05-15-2005, 10:32 PM

True, but an educated doctor will not give a patient a prescription willy nilly I would hope my doctor would give me a prescription, but not a prescription of willy nilly

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Alice S. Fuzzybutt

05-15-2005, 10:54 PM

He's got the willy. I gots the nilly.J/K.. my doc is cool. There's nothing better than a knowledgeable patient. Unless he's a hypochondriac. I discuss meds with my doc and what info I've found on-line. He's the one to veto it. It's a sad state of affairs when a patient is control of their doctor.

<IMG SRC=http://home.comcast.net/~stan_ferguson/alicesig.jpg>

"We sound just like Cheap Trick only the guitars are louder,"
- Kurt Cobain

"I prefer to listen to Cheap Trick."
-Homer Simpson

spoon

05-16-2005, 01:40 AM

Trust me Alice, there are times when that would be a good thing.  Physicians cry and complain about pharmaceutical companies, but most wouldn't know what to do without them.  Their Rx pad is the only thing they know these days.  Long gone are the days of good family doctors.  <img src="http://members.aol.com/dxixrxt/spoon2.jpg" border="0" /> Get your balls out of your purse and step up to flavor! With whale cancer! F yeah!

This message was edited by spoon on 5-16-05 @ 5:41 AM

El Mudo

05-17-2005, 01:09 AM

I had a prof once that told us everytime we went to the doctor, to bring a pad of paper and a pen, and write down everything the Doc tells you...He said it was funny sometimes to see the Docs freak out when he did that...but other than that it was pretty useful...

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