The SoSA Perspective

Marketing Department Run Amok

There I was, minding my own business, watching a little mindless TV, and this advertisement appears. Evidently I need to buy a something or other pill so that my digestive tract will become that of a small baby, as apposed to that of a 61 year old--no longer small--man. The catch is I can only get the holy pill via a doctors prescription. So now I’m left in the position of scheduling a visit to the doctor, so I can tell him what’s the mater with me, and further aid the poor old soul by telling him what medication he should prescribe!

I wondered how this scheme could possibly work for the drug company that makes the pills in question until I read that they’ve been simultaneously working on my doctor to prescribe the same pills. In fact, it seems that in 2005 the various drug companies spent $7 billion (yes billion with a B) paying their representatives to visit doctors all the while pushing the latest and best the druggies have to offer. When the visits were over they (the drug company reps) left $18 billion worth of free samples of the aforesaid latest and best as added inducement to use the stuff.

My question is two-fold. In the first place what has any of this high-priced lobbying got to do with maintaining my health? I would hope that my doctor knows more about what's actually wrong with me than I do. That’s why I go to a doctor in the first place. I also hope that my doctor has enough professional self respect to prescribe the most effective and safest medication available; even if the drugs turn out to be generic (I’m not made of money you know). My second question is; do you suppose that this kind of marketing run amok might have something to do with the obscenely high cost of health care? Just a thought.