#6 Pharmo-co-op

So is it just me or is the entire pharmaceutical industry ganging up on us? Seems like every other commercial on TV these days is about telling us to ask our doctor about one drug or another. It’s an interesting approach. We are being recruited by the drug companies to shill for them. We’ve been made deputy snake oil salesman. Fact is, there are so many drugs out there that it’s no longer good enough for the drug reps to take a doctor out to lunch, drinks and a massage to get him to pedal their most recent concoction. Oh no. With the whirl of a new batch of drugs every day and the constant re-spinning of old drugs for off-brand uses it’s enough to give a doctor vertigo, nausea, and the vapors. The snake oil business has come a long way.
So the rest of us poor suffering schmucks are treated to a nightly round of commercials instructing us to ask our doctors if this drug or that is right for us. And the underlying message seems to be: hector the darn physician until he caves in and gives it to you. Now that’s marketing.
The commercials are scary sometimes, though. When the FDA-mandated list of side effects comes on you kinda wonder. A drug purported to cure acid reflux causes gas, bloating and diarrhea. Seems to me you’re just moving the problem down the line. I saw one the other day for an ingestible drug that cures nail fungus. The catch is it may cause liver failure. Hmm. Let’s see, liver failure and death, or green toenails. Tough choice. But I gotta admit, cynical old me got hooked the other day. I saw this great commercial about running through a field of flowers, and enjoying a river rafting trip, and taking the grandkids to school with a big smile on my face. It looked wonderful. When the commercial told me to ask my doctor about it, I resolved to do just that the next day. My doctor only smiled. “Well sir,” he said, “I’d like to help. But I’m not sure you need estrogen replacement.”
America, ya gotta love it.