The pharmaceutical industry spends $21 billion each year on marketing. Although you and I have become painfully and nauseatingly aware of how much they throw at so-called direct-to-consumer advertising, 90% of that marketing tab is directed at doctors. It’s an embarrassing problem.
Last week, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a Special Communication by a group of physicians worried about the corruption of medicine. Titled “Health Industry Practices That Create Conflicts of Interest,” the report described the insidious influence of drug companies on doctor’s decisions. Drastic measures are recommended to enable doctors to, in their words, put the interests of patients first, maintain scientific integrity, and make unbiased medical decisions.
This reminds me of nothing so much as campaign finance reform. Lobbyists curry favor with politicians to promote the interests of their employers. Corruption ensues. Cries of outrage rise like flames. Laws are passed limiting the influence of money. Things quiet for a time. The lobbyists do their work. And in not too long—Oh my goodness! Corruption returns. Like water, money will find cracks in the system.
Even if the straightjacket proposed by the AMA’s Special Communication gets strapped onto the drug companies, they’ll find the cracks. Or they’ll create some. Which they will. Have no doubt. When you have as much money as the drug companies, you can buy a lot of talented people to figure out and relentlessly pursue what is in your interest.
A current example is the attack by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals on compounding pharmacies. Wyeth is the manufacturer of Premerin, an estrogen drug used in the conventional hormone replacement therapy that failed so miserably in the Women’s Health Initiative study. Wyeth got in a snit over the use of bio-identical hormone replacement that’s provided by compounding pharmacies and it filed a Citizen’s Petition with the FDA. I’m not kidding: Citizen’s Petition.
Wyeth’s petition is a tantrum in legaleze. It’s professional, polished whining about how “It’s no fair that compounders get to sell stuff that’s actually good for your health and we get stuck with this crummy stuff that nobody likes anymore.” They’re making absurd claims and calling for FDA to do stupid things. The gory details are on the website for the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists which is www.iacprx.org. We’ll have that and other links on our website.
Although Wyeth would be in hog heaven if FDA gave it everything it’s asking for, it will have succeeded even if FDA doesn’t side with it on anything. This is a war of attrition. A war of deep pockets where you overwhelm or exhaust your adversary’s resources. Wyeth and the drug oligarchy have very deep pockets.
What we have, and it’s important, is our voice. Let’s use it. Flood FDA in opposition to Wyeth. Information is on our website www.yourownhealthandfitness.org.
Related resources are available on the Hormones page.
