Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2688

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Mayeda J.
Big Pharma holds all ages in its thrall
SFGate ( San Francisco Chronicle ) 2005 Oct 9
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/09/RVG24F0EPB1.DTL&type=books

Keywords:
Crister

Notes:

Ralph Faggotter’s Comments:
Here is a book review of ‘Generation Rx’ by Greg Crister.
Crister looks at why so many Americans of all ages are pill-poppers and what the consequences might be.

Full text:

Big Pharma holds all ages in its thrall

Reviewed by Julie Mayeda

Sunday, October 9, 2005

Generation Rx

How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds and Bodies

By Greg Critser

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN; 308 PAGES; $24.95
Big Tobacco, you’re done, it’s Big Pharma’s turn to fry.

Last year, the former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell, turned the heat on Big Pharma with the publication of her measured yet scalding disclosure, “The Truth About Drug Companies.” Then, in the wake of the Vioxx recall, Newsweek published a brief article describing how such an unsafe drug slipped through the Food and Drug Administration safety net and “left patients confused, drug companies defensive and government officials at odds over how to fix the problem.” And now, “Fatland” author Greg Critser torches Big Pharma in his timely book, “Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs Are Altering American Lives, Minds and Bodies.”

Simply put, we are a nation on drugs; half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug daily, and of that half, 1 of 6 pop three or more per day. That statistic ought to have some shock value, but the truth is, we all know several people taking one or more prescriptions daily. How did we become a nation of pill poppers — we, whom Critser has aptly labeled Generation Rx?

Certainly, some of the blame must be affixed to America’s work-based culture. Americans sacrifice much at the altar of productivity and performance, including health. In lieu of lifestyles more conducive to health and well-being, Americans have come to rely upon pills to stay in the game. Thanks and blame go to Big Pharma, marketer of the pills that help fuel our culture’s frenetic work pace and high expectations, and in the process has elevated itself from a stodgy flat-lined industry to Wall Street darling.

Critser investigates Big Pharma’s rise and finds that its success wasn’t wholly earned by novel offerings of effective products or caring for its customers. Its success had more to do with persuading Washington bureaucrats to lower and sometimes obliterate barriers put in place to keep consumers safe and protect them from being swindled. First, Big Pharma persuaded policymakers to drop the requirement that advertisements include a time-sapping list of all of a drug’s side effects. This ruling popped the cork off the genie’s bottle and released a swarm of drug commercials on television viewers. The commercials worked; last year, 8.5 million Americans asked their doctors for a drug by name.

Then, as Critser points out, the Bayh-Dole Act was passed by Congress in 1981, which made it easier for companies to use research discoveries originated from publicly funded laboratories. Thus, instead of incurring research and development costs, Big Pharma now enjoyed the option of buying patent rights from National Institutes of Health scientists for lucrative drug discoveries. However, the savings are rarely passed down. In fact, consumers are charged twice for R&D costs: first as taxpayers funding NIH research and again as customers for phantom R&D costs used to validate a drug’s hefty price tag.

More such maneuverings followed that effectively “unbound” (as Critser titles his first chapter) Big Pharma even as they hamstrung FDA regulators. While Critser covers some of the same ground as does Angell’s 2004 book, he was able to include the recent Vioxx recall, which makes for a perfect cautionary tale of Big Pharma greed at the expense of consumer safety. But where Critser truly breaks new ground is in the following chapterhat divulges Big Pharma’s targeting of age groups, or “pharmaceutical tribes.”

Members of “The Tribe of High Performance Youth” have no time for feeling blue because in this day and age, competition heats up early in life. So for kids and teenagers there’s the “California Cocktail”: Ritalin, Neurontin (an anti-epileptic prescribed off-label for bipolar disorder) and Wellbutrin (an antidepressant). However, the brain’s frontal lobes aren’t fully matured until age 30, a fact that raises the question, will such drugs permanently affect a child’s later ability to think and feel? Critser quotes an expert on child psychopharmacology, Dr. Glen Elliott. “ ‘The problem,’ he said, ‘is that our usage has outstripped our knowledge base. Let’s face it, we’re experimenting on these kids without tracking the results.’ “

The “Middle-Year Tribe” members feel compelled to maintain or boost productivity on the one hand while staving off the aging process on the other. For us, Big Pharma proffers pills for heartburn, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, depression or all of the above. Most desperately, we fend off entering into the last tribe, the “Tribe of High-Performance Aging.” Naturally, members of this final tribe strive to maintain independence and to extend their lifespan. They continue taking their “middle-year-tribe” pills, but they might also add prescriptions for osteoporosis, prostate disorders, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.

All these pills add up. Nothing is for free, and when it comes to prescription drugs, we know that from the bottom of our pocketbooks. But there’s another, if somewhat hidden, cost to all these prescriptions. Livers, kidneys, lungs and stomach all struggle to process so many drugs, but they frequently get overwhelmed and begin to fail. According to one expert on liver disease quoted by Critser, “In the United States drug-induced liver disease is the most common cause of acute liver failure.” As yet, there is no medical initiative to deal with the serious and sometimes fatal problems associated with taking multiple pills.

In light of last year’s hormone therapy findings and the Vioxx scandal, public outrage over FDA ineptitude and Big Pharma greed is already on simmer, and “Generation Rx” might just be the incendiary needed to bring it to a roiling boil. “The stakes are high,” Critser concludes. “It’s your money and your life.”

Julie Mayeda is a writer in Oregon.