Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare
Prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death; just after heart disease and cancer. In the U.S., deaths from prescription drugs account for over 200,000 victims per year. In this important seven minute video, the Danish physician and researcher, Dr. Peter Gøtzsche states the case. See: Gøtzsche Video. Gøtzsche's presentation may help to save your life or that of someone close to you.
"The Dangers of ‘Polypharmacy,’ the Ever-Mounting Pile of Pills"
By Paula Span, NY Times, April 23, 2016
Although geriatricians and researchers have warned for years about the potential hazards of polypharmacy, usually defined as taking five or more drugs concurrently; it continues to rise in all age groups, and has reached disturbingly high levels among older adults. A recent study showed that 39% of people over age 65 in the U.S. take 5 or more different prescription medications a day (not yo mention other over-the-counter meds and supplements).
This is a concise, lucid and useful article by one of the Times best health reporters. It might pay to read it and remember its warnings.
Ask Your Doctor if This Ad Is Right for You How advertising promotes expensive drugs and treatments you may not need.
by Elisabeth Rosenthal
New York Times, 2.28.16
This is an extraordinarily important article that all should closely read. Here are some excerpts:
The health care industry spent $14 billion on advertising in 2014.
[It] encourages patients to seek out more expensive and, often, inappropriate treatment.
“Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate.”
Worried patients are, of course, a great captive audience.
There is too much here to summarize. Hats off to Elisabeth Rosenthal for a necessary review. It’s a keeper.
(Some years ago an entertaining video on this topic appeared on the web. See: Progenitorivox)
by Kasia Lipskafeb, Feb. 20, 2016
NY Times Op-Ed Piece: Break Up the Insulin Racket
Excerpts:
In the United States, just three pharmaceutical giants hold patents that allow them to manufacture insulin: Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk. Put together, the “big three” made more than $12 billion in profits in 2014, with insulin accounting for a large portion.
What makes this so worrisome is that the big three have simultaneously hiked their prices. From 2010 to 2015, the price of Lantus (made by Sanofi) went up by 168 percent; the price of Levemir (made by Novo Nordisk) rose by 169 percent; and the price of Humulin R U-500 (made by Eli Lilly) soared by 325 percent.
Besides these pharmaceutical companies, [s]omething else is most likely contributing to the rising price of insulin: a very powerful and largely invisible group of middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, or P.B.M.s.
The biggest P.B.M.s are out to make a buck. They get “rebates” from drug manufacturers — payments based on sales or other criteria, which look suspiciously similar to kickbacks. The rebates are not publicly disclosed, but they are sizable. Industry analysts estimate that those payments, and other back-room deals, amount to as much as 50 percent of the list price of insulin.
The three biggest P.B.M. — Express Scripts, CVS Health and OptumRx — bring in more than $200 billion a year in revenue. They control over 80 percent of the P.B.M. market.
In much of Europe, insulin costs about a sixth of what it does here. That’s because the governments play the role of pharmacy benefit managers. They negotiate with the manufacturer directly and have been very effective at driving down prices.
PhRMA and the P.B.M.s care making a killing while many patients have a hard time with co-pays for their insulin.
I saw a patient today with no drug insurance today who needed a cream for skin lesions. His pharmacy quoted him a price of $297. I had told him about GoodRx and he went to their website. The price there varied between $103 and $214. He wound up getting it for $154 at Walmart.
There are two websites that can help patients without drug coverage save significant sums on generic medications.
We wrote about Good Rx in 2013. The new kid on the block is BlinkHealth.
For more background on these see “Entrepreneurs Pull Back Curtain on Drug Prices” (NY Times, February 9, 2016).
Excerpts:
A few entrepreneurs are aiming to fundamentally change the way people buy drugs, bringing the industry into the digital age by disclosing the lowest prices for generic prescriptions to allow comparison-shopping.
The spotlight on drug prices could not come at a better time for at least two online ventures. One company, GoodRx, collects drug prices at pharmacies around the country and connects consumers to coupons to help them pay. Another, Blink Health, takes the process a step further by allowing customers to pay for their drugs online, then pick up the prescription at nearly any pharmacy.
Many uninsured consumers do not know that the price pharmacies charge them is far higher than the rate that insurers pay the pharmacies for the same drug, health care experts said. And even insured customers are not always getting the best deal. Many people have insurance plans that require them to pay a flat rate of $10 or higher for generic drugs, even though the rate the insurers pay the pharmacy is often less.
Becoming familiar with GoodRx and BlinkHealth can save you, a family member or BFF a considerable amount on generic prescriptions. If you need a drug that presents a significant expense, it would be wise to check both of these sites for the cheapest price.
These commandments appeared in the British Journal of General Practice. While they refer mostly to therapeutics, they are applicable to most doctor-patient interactions. We have edited the BJGP article as it was too verbose. Please feel free to edit what we provide as it can still be improved.
Download Ten Commandments for Patient Centered Care
Would you like to try some of the
over-the-counter drugs while you wait for your prescription?
In the U.S. today, drugs prescribed by doctors (myself included) kill more people than street drugs. This sobering fact was brought home by a recent article in the NY Times (reported widely elsewhere, too).
"In 2008, for the first time in nearly 30 years, more people died of poisoning than in car crashes. Poisoning is now the leading cause of injury death, and 90 percent of poisonings were caused by drugs.
Opioid painkillers like morphine, hydrocodone (sold as Vicodin and other brands) and oxycodone (Percocet and other brands) were involved in more than 40 percent of drug poisonings in 2008. These drugs were implicated in more poisoning deaths than heroin or cocaine.
Opioid analgesics accounted for 14,800 of the 36,500 fatal drug poisonings in 2008.
For full article see: Download Poisoning Kills
If you are a doctor, read this and weep. If you are a patient, digest this. If you are a family member of a patient, be vocal.