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Dr. Lowe (of Things I Won't Work With" fame) has a blog, In The Pipeline, to which he recently posted an interesting commentary on the topic of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical marketing:
There's an op-ed in The New York Times that makes tough reading, and it's something that we're going to be seeing more of. The author, Matt Jablow, lost his wife Ronna to non-small cell lung cancer, undiagnosed until a late stage, which is bad enough.
[...] And now, as Jablow says, he gets to watch commercials for Opdivo talking about how it can extend lives, ask your doctor, and so on, and he's (understandably) not happy about it. I'd find it painful, too – who wouldn't?
[...] The op-ed goes on to note the recent failed trial as dashing "the highest of hopes", but those were the highest of hopes for people who haven't been following the biology closely (which includes many investors as well).
[...] Immuno-oncology, in its various forms, has pulled some people practically out of the grave by current treatment standards, and we're going to see more of that in the years to come. But we're also going to see people who aren't helped by it, not yet, and losing them will be harder than ever.
Much more money is spent on pharmaceutical marketing than on research and about 12.5% of the marketing budget is devoted to direct to consumer advertising. Except for the US and New Zealand, the rest of the world does not allow direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
Some US companies, such as Insys Therapeutics, also pay doctors through "speaker programs" and employ former exotic dancers as sales representatives.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2016/08/09/a-painful-cancer-advertisement
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/opinion/cancer-drug-ads-vs-cancer-drug-reality.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_marketing
http://sirf-online.org/2015/04/24/the-new-killing-it/
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday August 12 2016, @08:03AM
We certainly would not willingly pass crap to our customer... but if the customer demands crap, we have no choice but comply, or the customer will just get the crap from somewhere else.
It is far, far worse that that. These are people faced with their own mortality. They demand to live. Fair enough. But for someone to use that desperation to sell them things that do nothing but cost money? These marketers are the worst sort of scum. And least dealers in illegal drugs have a clientele with some responsibility for their condition. And at least human trafficers probably know that what they are doing is immoral and wrong, and not desired by their "products". But these cancer people. Preying on the old, and weak, and well we might as well say it, cancerous. Have they no shame? At long last, sirs, have you no shame?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mmcmonster on Friday August 12 2016, @10:49AM
It's even worse than this.
The FDA will approve the drug because it will extend life 10 percent. And the company will sell it for $10,000 a treatment infusion.
But for a person with metastatic pancreatic cancer, that 10 percent extension will give them a couple days of painful existence. Sometimes it's better to help the patient and family cope with the dieing and not bankrupt them on the way.
(Score: 2) by mmcmonster on Friday August 12 2016, @10:55AM
[...]and employ former exotic dancers as sales representatives.
Because God forbid a former exotic dancer get another job sometime in life.
I've met several exotic dancers. Most are just trying to make ends meet while doing something else. They know they've got the body or face to make a few bucks off it it while they are young. Why not let them? There's obviously a market for them.
And marketing drugs to doctors requires just memorization of a couple pages of facts, a good personality, and the ability to talk to others. Don't see how an exotic dancer would be underqualified.
(Score: 2) by julian on Friday August 12 2016, @03:45PM
Have they no shame?
I'm sure individually everyone involved has about as much shame as any random person. The real trick late stage capitalism has pulled off is spreading shame out over enough people so that the job can get done with no one feeling bad enough about their own role to put a stop to it.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday August 13 2016, @05:32AM
It's not just late stage capitalism or any type of capitalism. Fact is that committees spread the blame enough to allow horrible things to be perpetrated no matter what the system is. Seems to happen to all large institutions whether it's a board, cabinet or even the home owners association.