Drug companies
Here’s a list of the top one hundred drugs in common use in America. As I was driving throught he clusterfuck that is Chicago Traffic yesterday, I was discussing this very concept with Mr Porretto.
Wander through the list, look up each drug, and see what it does.
Let me save you the trouble: THe description of what they do all begins with “to treat…”
When is the last time you heard of something that CURED something? it seems all of medical science is focused on treating symptoms. With a whole OTHER group of companies dealing with treating the side effects of the drugs you took in the first place. After all, there’s no future in eliminating something, but treating the symptoms is a cash cow. An overlarge one.
Makes it difficult to take the “medical profession” seriously, don’t it?
14 comments Og | Uncategorized
I decided this very thing years ago. Of course, I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to shut off my cash flow either.
Doctors hate me. I also tell them, when they prescribe something..”that’s all well and good but what CAUSED it and what are we gonna do about that?”
Yeah – I think I may very well be blacklisted. ;-)
The last time I heard of something that cured something was just about every time I see an ad for foot meds. E.g., “Cures Athlete’s Foot In Just Two Weeks” or whatever.
No such thing. You get fungus, you’ve got it for life. And besides, it’s not a cure you want, it’s hot fiery death to a creeping parasite you want. Don’t cure me, get it off of me.
These people ought to be taken out and hanged for misleading advertising.
And wow. The #1 antidepressant is only #11 on the list?
Amazing.
I came to this conclusion about 10 years ago… Now when I donate blood and they comment my BP is “slightly elevated” I know it is time to wake up earlier and take that dammned walk and chew on some bananas… for the potassium our western diet usually lacks… :-)
Cheers from the Banana Republic!
Erm,umm, three of the medications I take are on this list. YIKES!
Have a wonderful day!
*^_^
(=’:’=) meow hugs
(“)_ (“)Š from da Raggedy one
Medicine Treatments and Cures
Og has a post about the top 100 drugs in common use in America. (prescription drugs) As I perused the list I thought it was pretty lame to list the same drugs multiple times for different dosages. I think they…
I don’t recall the last time that I had a headache caused by lack of paracetemol.
Well… You could always eat right.
(GD&R)
M
What’s eating right?
I gotta take some exception with you here, Og.
First off, what the heck is this list and where did you get it? From my cursory examination it’s a listing of drugs sold or dispensed or somehow tracked over a six month period last year, it also appears to be tracking how much is covered by insurance/copays. Is this some sort of list for an insurance company?
What is “net amount” anyway? I do not believe this is a ranking of drugs by popularity. Looking at the drugs and what they treat, I am more inclined to believe this is a ranking by the COST of the drugs, as the #1 drug on the list is a retroviral for HIV patients. That is hardly an item in every household medicine cabinet. I can see it ranked as most expensive; You could swallow gold and precious jewels for less money than buying retrovirals.
As a medical transcriptionist I type drugs all day long — drugs used to treat all manner of ills and adminstered to patients what need ’em — for what it’s worth here’s the three words I type the most (besides “The patient”):
Hypertension
Diabetes
Hypercholesterolemia
Right behind the big three there, I also type a lot of:
Obesity
Depression
Anxiety
Asthma
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Arthritis
Coronary Disease
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD)
So I am not surprised to see many drugs on your list for the treated of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high cholesterol as well as the other problems I listed.
I think something more like this link gives a better picture:
http://www.forbes.com/sciencesandmedicine/2006/02/27/pfizer-merck-genentech-cx_mh_0224topsellingdrugs.html
That’s from Forbes: “America’s Best Selling Drugs.” I type these drugs all damn day long.
I’m not saying there’s not some greed in the pharmaceutical business — isn’t greed good for business? — but I also got to tell you but if it was just a matter of chasing the dollar, cures would be going for the top dollar and we’d all have access.
The company that could find a pill that could cure hypertension or diabetes or high cholesterol would have profit that would make Bill Gates look like a beggar. The scientist that found the cure for obesity would not only make a bazillion dollars but would also win every prize out there including the Publishers’ Clearing House Sweepstakes.
Or how about intractable pain? Or lung cancer? I can’t believe with the difficulty some people have managing pain or the low viability of lung cancer that any drug company would sit on a cure; people would be lined up around the block to take something that would fix ’em up and drug company excutives could be taking swan dives into pools full of bucks.
Just saying.
Jenny
Well, putting my tinfoil hat aside fo a few moments, there’s the fact that once cured, a disease cann no longer be treated. If obesity and hypertension were “cured” overnight, no matter how much money those cures cost, there would be no more available income for the drug companies to make on antihypertensives. You type the charts. I walk through the factories where the drugs are made. In each factory there are research areas where new treatments are being sought. There are no areas where cures are being sought. None.
You hit the nail on the head. What the bloody idiots don’t get is if they had cures they would still be in business. Cuz folks would still need the cures.
yahoo yahoo