Today perception is reality

Today an infographic on the pharma industry is getting a lot of buzz via social media. While a lot of the information is out of context and is false it nonetheless is the perception of a lot of people and today in an ADD world perception often equals their reality.

As we can see with mess in the Gulf people love to point fingers and because they feel powerless they want their pound of flesh. Pharma has continually come under attack again and again. Granted a lot of these attacks are because some people within the industry put sales ahead of patients but now we are learning that even common drugs like Ibuprofen have risks. So here are some real facts when it comes to healthcare marketing:

• Only 10% of every healthcare dollar goes to prescription drugs (source: NIH/Time Magazine Sept 2009)

• Americans are their own worst enemy when it comes to healthcare costs; The annual health-care costs of obesity in America have risen from $74 billion in 1998 to $147 billion in 2008. In America, more than a third of the adult population is now obese (obesity being defined as having a body-mass index more than 30). This is nearly three times as many as in 1960, and half as many again as in 1990. Source: Wall Street Journal “Is Obesity Killing Us)

• A University of Chicago study estimates that Americans with diabetes will increase from 24 million people to about 44 million people by 2034, with direct health care costs increasing from $116 billion a year to $336 billion a year. Source: Univ of Chicago Study on Diabetes)

• A recent physician survey by KRC Research found that 92% say their clinical knowledge and 88% say a patient’s unique situation greatly influence their prescribing decisions. Thirty-five percent point to patients’ health insurance coverage as an important factor in prescribing, while only 5% say they often give the patient a prescription for the medicine requested. Source: KRC Research

• According to an FDA survey, 73% of physicians polled stated that DTC ads helped patients ask thoughtful questions, and 91% said the patient did not try to influence the course of treatment in a way that would have been harmful. Source: Getting Our Facts Straight About Pharma Marketing by Robert Kadar)

• Total promotional spending by pharma companies ranges from $15 billion to $50 billion, depending on the source and how one defines “marketing.” (For instance, the larger number includes the cost to support pharmaceutical sales teams who call on physicians and provide free samples that many doctors provide to patients who do not have health insurance. A small percentage or about 15% goes to the most visible type of promotions — direct to consumer advertising.) If you compare these expenditures to total U.S. health care spending of $2.26 trillion you can quickly see that even on the high side of pharma spending estimates, promotional spending accounts for only about 2% of the total health care costs. Source: PHrMA Website)

• More than $1.2 trillion spent on health care each year is a waste of money with the leading causes over testing, processing claims and ignoring doctors orders. Source: CNN.com Health costs out of control)

• For all the money Americans spend on health care (60 percent more per person than any other advanced country), Americans are not an especially healthy people. Life expectancy at 50 in the U.S. ranks 29th in the world, three years behind world leader Japan, one and a half years behind Canada. Other indicators — infant mortality, life expectancy at birth — look even worse.

• If all Americans quit smoking, if everybody wore a seat belt, if gun owners consistently secured their weapons, if we all drank in moderation and abjured illegal drugs and if the one-third of the country that is overweight would drop the extra pounds, those individual actions would do more to improve health and extend lives than any contemplated by Congress or the president.

• Drug development is risky as well as costly. Out of 5,000 to 10,000 screened compounds, only 250 enter preclinical testing, five enter human clinical trials, and one is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Source: PhRMA Website.

Pharma companies spend more on pharmaceutical R&D ($44.5 billion in 2007) than the National Institutes of Health’s entire operating budget ($28.4 billion in 2007). Source: PhRMA Website Pharma Facts.

Yes perception can be reality today as consumers tend to read headlines and skip the facts. Before people start indicting a whole industry perhaps they should ask HIV patients, who are leading longer lives thanks to drugs, how they feel about the drugs they are taking