Page 76 - Summer2009

All Thumbs Book Reviews

proof. “America,” she says, “has become the world’s greatest medicine her shower doctors with gifts and cash. Surveys
show.” And the drug merchants have become America’s most powerful show that virtually every American physician
industry. now takes these handouts.” In return, of course,
In the section “The Rise of the Medicine Merchants,” Petersen reports the doctors are expected to provide “scripts” (that
RQ WKH XWWHU WULXPSK RI FRUSRUDWH VDOHVPDQVKLS DQG SUR¿W GULYHQ PDUNHW- is, more customers) and most do.
ing strategies of the largest pharmaceutical companies over science, the Since only about ten percent of the sticker
practice of medicine, and even the American way of life. price of most brand name prescriptions is needed
Drug marketers pitch their wares to the public via every means avail- to cover raw materials and manufacturing costs,
able and in every niche into which they can insinuate themselves, such the industry is rolling in dough while taxpayers
as state fairs, shopping malls, churches, NASCAR races, on television, are emptying their pockets. “With their hoards
ELOOERDUGV VFRUHERDUGV DQG WKURXJK QRQSUR¿W IRXQGDWLRQV ZKRVH ³RXW- of cash,” writes Petersen, “the companies have
reach” activities are funded by the drug companies. readily handed money to patient groups, hos-
For example, doctors in Iowa sometimes referred young patients to a pitals, universities, medical schools, physician
QRQSUR¿W JURXS FDOOHG WKH 0DJLF )RXQGDWLRQ RUJDQL]HG E\ PRWKHUV ZLWK societies, government agencies, and just about
children with rare growth disorders. As Petersen reports, “Over the years, any organization they want on their side. Har-
the foundation had accepted thousands of dollars from the companies YDUG IRU RQH KDV D OHFWXUH KDOO QDPHG IRU 3¿]HU
selling prescription growth hormone products. In a campaign in the early in a building named for Mallinckrodt, another
1990s, the Magic Foundation, as well as another group, the Human Growth FRPSDQ\ ´ ,QGXVWU\ PRQH\ LQÀXHQFHV DFDGHPLD
Foundation, had measured the height of children in public schools. The and what new “blockbuster” drugs will receive
screeners suggested that the shortest children visit their doctors for medical money for research. Whether this new drug will
treatment. Most of the schools and the parents did not learn that the two help or harm people is not important as long as it
foundations had received most of their funding for the school screenings ZLOO LQFUHDVH SUR¿WV IRU FRPSDQ\ VKDUHKROGHUV
from Genentech and another hormone manufacturer. . . Are there no checks and balances? What
“The Magic Foundation. . . continued to recommend hormone injec- about the Food and Drug Administration, or
tions to short children and their parents and describe the drugs in ways the &RQJUHVV" ³7KH GUXJ FRPSDQLHV¶ FKDLQ RI LQÀX-
manufacturers could not do without breaking the law. A story published ence is so complete that there are few people left
in the foundation’s glossy magazine that I picked up at a pediatricians’ to look objectively at the effects of their products
FRQIHUHQFH LQ ZDV HQWLWOHG µ0H DQG 0\ *URZWK +RUPRQH ¶ 7KH VWRU\ on the nation’s health or at the consequences of
began, ‘I was short. My little sister was taller than me. Kids at school picked their power for society. . . . Washington is the
on me and called me names.’ The tale continued with the child getting axis of the industry’s power. The pharmaceuti-
growth hormone injections and growing so much his pants got too short. cal companies spent more on lobbying between
‘I’m almost grown now,’ the story ended. ‘I’m in the normal range on a DQG WKDQ DQ\ RWKHU LQGXVWU\ %\
growth chart. Growth hormone is like a miracle drug.’” the companies employed a legion of lobbyists
It might come as a surprise that even though drug advertising is every- so large that there were more than two for each
where and directed at everyone from young children to their grandparents, member of Congress. By using their wealth to
the vast majority of the industry’s marketing dollars is actually reserved for EX\ LQÀXHQFH WKH GUXJ FRPSDQLHV KDYH UHSHDW-
physicians. Cynically viewed as the trusted “gateway” to new customers, edly squelched attempts to regulate their prices
physicians are aggressively and lavishly courted by drug company sales and promotional practices.”
UHSV $FFRUGLQJ WR 3HWHUVHQ ³,Q WKH LQGXVWU\ HPSOR\HG DQ DUP\ RI The pharmaceutical industry has won other
101,000 sales representatives to call on those doctors—two and a half ODZV WKDW DOORZ FRPSDQLHV WR SUR¿W IURP UHVHDUFK
WLPHV WKH VL]H RI LWV VDOHV IRUFH LQ 7KHUH LV QRZ RQH GUXJ VDOHVSHUVRQ and medical discoveries made by taxpayer-
for every six physicians, each with an expense account that lets him or funded scientists; to prolong patent protection
74 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2009