Big Pharma (and Marcia Angell's Speech at Brown)

I admittedly have a distaste for the pharmaceutical company and their profit-driven motives and greater investment in drugs to treat superficial diseases, such as erectile dysfunction and acne, then diseases that truly plague patient's well-being (ie Cancer, AIDs, etc). At the same time I recognize that the cohabitation of doctors and pharmaceutical companies (and their minions- the reps)is an unavoidable aspect of modern healthcare.

This past Thursday Marcia Angell, former editor-and-chief of the NEJM came to speak at Brown. She is a vocal critic of the pharmaceutical industry. One of the main criticisms of her speech is the vast discrepancy between their presentation of profits to the public, opposed to their actual profits. The pharmaceutical companies make an 18% profit (numbers into the tens of billions), which far exceeds all other fortune 500 companies. Additionally, even the seemingly benevolent acts are truly trivial from the perspective of the companies. The free drug donations are a very nominal cost to pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Angell also spoke about the morally questionable marketing ploys of pharmaceutical companies, including bribing doctors.

Dr. Angell's speech was countered by Mary Ruwart's analysis of the pharmaceutical company. I found many of the points and data presented to be absolutely absurd. Dr. Ruwart was arguing that the pharmaceutical industry is "over-regulated," which has restricted innovation and let to numerous patient deaths in the wait for FDA approval. I think that presenting such flawed data was repugnant, given that many of the audience members were pre-medical students and ultimately consumers of the healthcare system. It's important to realize why we have regulations in place- the FDA's creation was in response to the thalidomide crisis that marked healthcare and drug development in the 60s. Without any external checks, companys that are profit-driven will often act in ways that are in the best interest of their corporation, not the general public. Also, rigorous drug testing in large populations is essential to determine drug efficacy and safety. If anything I feel that Big Pharma needs to be more highly regulated; the fact that the pharmaceutical company helps to fund the FDA is absurd.

In spite of being a strong proponent of more rigorous safeguards and regulation, I do ultimately believe that the pharmaceutical industry provides good to the world of healthcare. I believe that drug development is an essential component to progressing healthcare in the world but I believe that the government should fund more academic research so institutions can have more freedom to determine which diseases to study. Also, in the midst of lifestyle drugs there have been some incredible discoveries and innovations developed. My ultimate wish for pharmaceutical development, is that the government/society will start demanding that there be greater focus on creating drugs for the truly deletorious diseases.