Old News but Relevant
The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization
Act of 2003
Most pharmacies, insurance companies and hospitals can
negotiate for how much they will pay for drugs.
The prices charged to consumers reflect how much their profit margins on
these drugs will be. The MPDIMA made it
illegal for Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs. Those who may need the drugs the most are
charged the most.
And these patients are being charged over inflated prices for drugs
that they might be able to eliminate entirely if they adhered to proper
holistic health! It is never too late to
take responsibility for your own health.
However, it is choice and sadly, many people would rather take a pill
than eat a salad. Because of the barrage
of media propaganda, people believe pharmaceuticals are the only answer to
their health problems. The majority of
doctors will not tell them any differently – their livelihoods depend on
treating patients, prescribing drugs and adhering to industry guidelines.
Corporate Drug Pushers
Big Pharma invests big money in promoting their drugs. This promotion is not just in the form of
magazine and medical journal ads or in television advertisements. They literally pay for and skew research,
drug trials and clinical studies to make their drug look good. The sooner the drug is on the market, the
sooner they can reap the profits.
Drug companies also spend mega bucks on “education” of the
medical establishment. Big pharma has a
government sanctioned, highly beneficial conflict of interest that they exploit
to their maximum profit.
Most states require doctors to receive continuing medical
education (CME) throughout their professional lives to maintain their
licenses. They earn credits by attending
meetings and lectures. The Accreditation
Council of Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) is responsible for approving
organizations that provide educational programs. These include medical schools, hospitals and
various professional societies.
Here’s the catch. Who
pays for the doctor’s attendance to continuing education? Not the doctors. Pharma once directly supported the accredited
professional organizations but now they usually contract with private medical
education and communication companies (MECCs).
These contracted companies plan the meetings, prepare teaching materials
and hire speakers. The MECCS are often
ACCME accredited – even though they are business hired by big pharma – even though
there is an obvious conflict of interest.
The education and instruction provided by MECCs is anything
but impartial. Obviously, doctors are “educated”
on the great benefits of whatever drug big pharma is promoting. There is a Task Force on Industry Professional
Collaboration in Continuing Medical Education that was created to guide the
ACCME on conflict of interest policies.
Guess what? Half the members of
the task for are representatives of educational institutions and professional organizations
BUT the other members are from the pharmaceutical industry or the MECCs. You can be sure that big pharma
representatives have infiltrated the other two groups as well.
Furthermore, unrestricted educational grants are commonly made
to medical teaching schools and hospitals.
They go along with the MECCs in order to receive this much needed
financial support. Big pharma provides
information to doctors and the doctors provide information back to them.
Even certain professional societies like the American
College of Cardiology and the American Society of Hematology are partly
supported by drug companies. This is
where the indoctrination process of our physicians occurs. Go to the website of any pharmaceutical
company and you can find information on applying for their “medical education” grants.
Doctors who go along with the program are invited to
expensive dinners or trips to luxurious settings to act as “consultants” or “advisers.”
Many receive further training to serve
on speaker’s bureaus and become big pharma shills. Get paid thousands of dollars for little talk,
then play some golf or enjoy some skiing on your trip – what could be easier?. All this and more is “legal” under the
education exemption.
Off Label Uses of drug
Though it is illegal for drug companies to market drugs for
unapproved uses, doctors may prescribe the drugs for them. Under the guise of “education”, drug
companies inform doctors about other potential uses of a drug. This education is backed by references to
unscientific research which they sponsor (i.e. pay for).
It is also illegal for big pharma to offer kickbacks to
doctors to prescribe drugs. In the past
lavish gifts were given to doctors for pushing certain tests and pills. This practice is now under greater scrutiny,
but the ever clever pharma corps now take full advantage for the law’s exception
for educational and research activities.
They can also get away with almost unlimited gifts to promote sales
under this exception.
Medical education Big Pharma style is little better than no
health education at all.
References and Further Reading
Investigation of certain allegations related to voting on
the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. September 30, 2004. 108th Congress – 2nd
Session. House of Representatives. Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.
Is Academic Medicine for Sale? Marcia Angell, M.D.
The Truth about the Drug Companies. Marketing Masquerading as Education. Marcia Angell,
M.D. pp 135-154
More Drug Industry Ties to Medical Societies. Propublica.org report
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