Profit Infatuation Drug Corporations Addiction
...ve 400,000 dinner meetings with doctors” and surely those meetings are not free of cost. Such marketing and advertising costs are conveniently excluded in the corporations’ claims of high R&D costs. The expensive prescription drugs have been an issue since the birth of pharmaceutical companies. It has been a life defining factor for many causing preventable diseases claim life where financial issues were evident. Maybe it is time for the west to establish a similar program like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Program (PBS) in Australia. It allows the Health Ministry of Australia to be the sole purchaser of drugs ensuring cheap and affordable life saving medications to the Australian citizens. Not only does the government have complete power over it’s access of drugs but also it funds experts to completely evaluate the new drugs to determine their efficiency compared to a range of other drugs used to treat the same disease. The PBS does two very important things for their citizens as Richard Denniss, President of The Australia Institute, has mentioned: “It actually keeps the price that the Australian government pays for medicine as low as possible and it ensures affordable access through a system of co-payments for the drugs themselves.” The drug companies around the globe spend money in advertising to the people to influence their trust in their products, yet, in Australia they are prohibited to engage in direct-to-consumer advertising. Thus, the companies spend their money in convincing the doctors of their drugs’ supposed supremacy. This would help reduce the cost in the field of marketing and advertising significantly which will result in a dramatic decrease in the overall cost of the drug. Furthermore, the drug manufacturers’ absurd infatuation with profit compels them to “cheat” the legal system and earn even more money – “…drug companies cheat American consumer by using legal tricks to extend their patents beyond their 20 year period, thereby preventing cheaper generics reaching the consumer”. Merck and Bristol use this ingenious strategy to prosper their profits. However, this controversial strategy inflicts a couple of rather serious consequences that the public needs to be aware of: first and foremost; it neglects generic companies’ right to the market, which would offer cheaper versions of the same drugs, and secondly; these “improved and newer drugs” are essentially the same, which misleads the public into thinking that the drug is somehow superior, therefore, better. Believing in the scheme, the consumers buy the new products earning the drug companies tremendous amounts of money; the CEO’s and other affiliates of the companies accept the profit without any sign of humiliation or embarrassment. This morbid infatuation with profit of the drug corporation is an addiction problem that hinders upon their senses of morality. The possibility of redemption and salvation has long passed for the drug corporation. Since all their misdoings seriously hamper their image to the public and they become less trust worthy day by day, the drug makers needed a scheme that will better the damage done. Thus marks the beginning of the “Free Drug Assistance” program where some pharmaceutical companies have taken the responsibility in taking care of poverty stricken beings – after all they make enough money to do so. Although not many have subscribed to this program or the program is not available throughout United States yet, it still promises a better future for the unfortunate ones. Due to the program’s incompetence, it is concluded that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt to improve the image of the profit-infatuated big pharma. The program for it to be recognizable and honourable, it needs to be adequate with supplies and utilize more branches throughout the states and possibly foreign nations as well. The program should make it easier to be approved and not require lengthy paperwork. Social workers across the nation should also be notified of such assistance program so they can take advantage of such programs. In order for this to be successful, the “Free Drug Assistance” program should combine all the pharmaceutical companies where the government of the country make it mandatory for all drug manufacturers to spend their money on the project. This way billions of thousands of dollars will be active through the system only to help those in need. By making it mandatory, the companies will not be able to ignore it. By unionizing the entire pharmaceutical industry of the world, it guarantees almost endless amounts of funds for the program that has the sole purpose of bettering mankind’s conditions. This way the third world countries are not left neglected. Maybe this one positive image of the supposed “Free Drug Assistance” program in Dallas, Texas, is also used to advertise their good name in the market and have it in a low scale to make sure that not a significant amount of money is used through these programs, but it is better than nothing. Maybe Mackey from the article was paid to lie so the public is fooled into believing in big pharma’s non-existent sympathetic side. Theft is an act that must be rewarded with punishment; whether it is the act of stealing objects or intellectual property should not be a factor in deciding a person’s guilt; conversely, certain circumstances deserve lenient judgment of the accused. The drug manufacturers have lobbied their way into the World Trade Organization (WTO) introducing tough patent laws, which enables them to restrict their drug usage and halts backward engineering in the majority world. Backward engineering is the only affordable means of producing medicines, and the cessation of such processes will prove fatal for a substantial amount of the world’s population. According to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) who are dissatisfied with the lack of honouring the patented foreign drugs, backward engineering results in a loss of $1.7 billion in annual revenue for the US drug manufacturers. Although $1.7 billion dollars might justify the corporations’ action to strengthen their patent laws, if and only if the culpable could afford buying the royalties, but that is not the case with the majority world. The average income of an Indian is $530 US dollars in 2004. Therefore, most Indian people will not be able to afford these foreign drugs even at a “discounted” price, especially, when the price difference is enormous. A year’s therapy with Glivec, a leukemia drug, costs around $27,000 compared with $2,700 for the local product; and a tablet of Cialis cost about nine dollars whereas the local copies cost about fifty cents. These ridiculous laws are compelling the Indian government to impose strictness on patent issues. The big shot corporations from US are eager to have this done as soon as possible because it will bring more profit for the corporations. It is very cruel to assume that the big shot drug companies, no matter however big they are, will simply let go of their profits and allow the patent law violation of drug companies in India. Since the companies that are trying to protect their drugs from the vultures of Indian market can afford losses, they should take the initiative of the situation, and instead of completely forcing the poor innocent people to pay unaffordable prices, they should construct a deal in which Indian local drug companies can produce the drugs unlawfully as long as they pay a certain amount of money to the original drug company from whom the local company started their backward engineering. This will then be regarded as a fee for using the foreign drug as a template for the local ones, and this deal will only be available to the majority world so the nations that are better off cannot cash-in into this deal. However, the big pharma fails to notice or maybe they ignore the fact that by enforcing drug patent laws, they kill thousands of humans. In fact, this will guarantee thousands of death certificates since most people in India are not financially well off to afford PhRMA’s demands. “Undermining intellectual property rights could have serious implications for the flow of new treatments and vaccines”, says Chief executive of Glaxo SmithKline, Jean-Pierre Garnier, and furthers adds, “Our prices in Africa are at a level with, if not better than, those offered by generic manufacturers…” Purposely, Mr. Gernier forgot to add that only 130 of an estimated 80,000 HIV positive people in Senegal have access to the supposed price reduction offers. The pharmacies are so blinded by the greed of money that simple ethics – murdering people is wrong by all accounts – blur in front of them. And by snatching the affordable price of drugs away from the poor consumers, they indirectly commit murder. Drug donations to the majority world are almost always crucial to ensure health safety of the citizens because the nations lack the financial power and the industry infrastructure needed to produce the necessary medications. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an estimated total of 27,800 to 34,800 tons of medical supplies were donated between 1992 and mid-1996, representing an overall value of 339 to 425 millions of US dollars. However approximately 19,440 tons of the medical supplies consisted of useless, unusable or expired drugs and disposable materials. Overall the total amount of inappropriate medical supplies amounted to 17,000 tons, which were worth about US$ 250 millions. These inappropriate donations may have helped donors in getting tax cuts up to US$ 25.5 millions and cause a loss of US$ 34 millions for the recipients. Donation of drugs should have a strict guideline where failure to comply with such restrictions inflict drastic measures: from hefty fines to ceasing their business altogether. The guidelines should include that expired drugs will cost a certain amount of fine. Of course it will calculate human error into the equation but as soon as the amount of expired dru...