Your Good Health is not the Motivation of the Drug Manufacturers
Every day Americans are bombarded with advertisements for the latest and greatest drugs on the market. These ads portray people full of life and vitality. The drug manufacturers would have us believe the people who consume their products are happy and healthy. It is implied that the chief goal of the manufacturer is to help us live a better more fulfilling life. This is far from the truth. It can be demonstrated by analyzing the expenditure of dollars for advertising drugs versus the teaching of prevention that making a profit is the goal of the major drug manufacturers.
Since the FDA changed the law in 1997 to allow direct-to-consumer advertising, the amount of money spent by major drug manufacturers rivals the expenditure by companies such as Dell, Budweiser, Pepsi and Nike. Between 1996 and 2003 there was a 400% increase in advertising, from $791 million to $3.2 billion. In 2004 spending increased another 23% to over $4 billion. In 2000 Merck alone spent $161 million (Gellad and Lyles 477). Could this money be spent more wisely to advertise prevention rather than cure?
It should be remembered that the drug manufacturers make money from our illnesses, not our health. This is easily recognized by the fact that the number one killer of men, cardiovascular disease, is largely preventable (qtd. in Mayo). In a leading cardiovascular medical publication, Mark Houston reveals that simple but relatively unknown changes in diet reduced heart attacks by a whopping 76%. These same simple changes reduced stroke by 41% (397). The existence of these and many other facts should prompt us to question why no one is telling us how to be truly healthy. Why are we bombarded with advertisements about various drugs and yet we are never instructed on how to prevent the illnesses before they get started?
The answer is very simple. Drug manufacturers can not make any money by truly helping people to remain healthy. The manufacturers can only stay in business when we are sick. A large number of our prevalent illnesses are preventable and yet we are spending billions for drugs that have dangerous side-effects as well as drugs to treat those side-effects.
The convergence of the above facts leads us to a very obvious conclusion. The motivations of the drug manufacturers are directed much more by profit margins than by truly making their customers healthy. Of course, this is what companies do. It is their mission to make money.
As individuals we should always remember that it is solely our personal responsibility to manage, maintain and improve our health. The drug manufacturers are not directed by altruistic motives. Rather, as can be seen by the amount spent on advertising treatments rather than preventions, the intention is to profit from our illness instead of keeping us healthy.
Gellad, Ziad F., Kenneth W. Lyles. “Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Pharmaceuticals.” The American Journal of Medicine (2007) 120, 475-480. Science Direct. American Military University Online Lib. 5 Dec. 2007
Houston, Mark C. “Nutraceuticals, Vitamins, Antioxidants, and Minerals in the prevention and Treatment of Hypertension.” Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, Vol. 47, No. 6, 2005: pp 396-449. Science Direct. American Military University Online Lib. 5 Dec. 2007
Mayo Clinic. “Men’s top 10 health threats: Mostly preventable.” MayoClinic.com. 21 Feb, 2007. 5 Dec. 2007.