Monthly Archives: June 2018

Let’s blame drug companies for OUR poor health

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  • Physical inactivity is a primary cause of most chronic diseases.
  • Population levels of physical activity, inadequate to meet current guidelines can place a health burden on the U.S. population that results in higher health care expenditures.
  • Regular physical activity is associated with important health benefits, including reduced risk for premature death, cardiovas­cular disease, ischemic stroke, type 2 diabetes, colon and breast cancers, and depression.
  • A study of one million people has found that physical inactivity costs the global economy $67.5 billion a year in healthcare and productivity losses, but an hour a day of exercise could eliminate most of that.
  • Just 23% of US adults get enough exercise, CDC reports

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The public is not informed about drug pricing

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  • On May 11, 2018, President Trump announced his plan titled, “American Patients First,” an effort aimed at lowering the price of prescription drugs.
  • One key element of this plan is to require drug manufacturers to publish list prices for their prescription drugs in television advertisements.
  • Three-fourths (76 percent) of the public favor the federal government requiring prescription drug advertisements to include a statement about how much the drug costs.
  • In a rare instance of bipartisanship, this policy proposal is supported by a majority of Democrats (83 percent), independents (73 percent) and Republicans (72 percent)

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Will the FDA ever get DTC guidelines right?

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  • 89 percent of the public favors requiring the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] to review prescription-drug ads for accuracy before they are broadcast.
  • A survey of patients by Prevention Magazine in 2012 showed that [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]71 percent of people agree that DTC advertisements “allow people to be more involved with their health care” and 75 percent believe that DTC ads are useful because they “tell people about new treatments.[/inlinetweet]
  • Prevention’s survey also found that [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]76 percent of Americans talked to their physicians about a condition after seeing a DTC ad [/inlinetweet]and among those who discussed a specific medicine that was advertised with their physician, [inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]only 20 percent received the prescription of the advertised medicine.[/inlinetweet]
  • Fair balance in DTC TV ads is not necessary as the vast majority of patients will go online to learn about drug side effects.
  • Drug companies are left out of social media conversations because they lack FDA guidelines.

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Media sensationalism and pharma

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  • Today the media attracts readers with sensational headlines,but rarely researches data in-depth to provide readers with unbiased content.
  • Stories attacking drug prices continue to ignore the real problem with healthcare costs such as the costs of preventable health problems and rising costs of a hospital stay.
  • Pharma tries to fight back via PhRMA, but because they are the lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry their credibility is very low.
  • The only way to win the hearts and minds of people is by a “human” approach to drug marketing and putting a personality on big drug companies.

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Consumers happy with insurance coverage

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[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]Across all demographics, consumers report relatively high satisfaction with health insurance companies, with insurers earning an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars by survey respondents.[/inlinetweet]

Respondents participating in Medicare or Medicaid plans, as well as those in the 73+ age group, consistently rated their health insurer satisfaction higher than all other ages and insurance type.

[inlinetweet prefix=”” tweeter=”” suffix=””]When asked which factor they believe is most responsible for the high cost of health care, respondents lay the blame with pharmaceutical companies (36 percent),[/inlinetweet] with health insurance companies coming in a close second at 31 percent.

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Why does pharma ignore caregivers?

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Family members provide more than 95% of non-professional care for older adults who do not live in nursing homes.

‣ In total, family caregivers provide 37 billion hours of care annually.

‣ Caregivers looking after elderly family and friends log 3 times as many hours per year as professional caregivers.

‣ The estimated economic value of family and friend caregiving is roughly $500 billion per year—3 times greater than Medicaid’s expenditures on professional long-term care.

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Opioid addiction starts with a prescriber’s pen

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  • The opioid crisis is extremely complex and that a single, simple cause cannot be identified
  • Purdue pharma has to carry the majority of the blame for the opioid crisis, but others are also to blame.
  • Physicians should have known that ANY opioid is addictive and PBM’s should have alerted the FDA and DEA to high volumes of the painkillers being ordered by local pharmacies.
  • Psychology Today says “pressure from patients, is likely to also be part of the motivation for unnecessary or excessive opioid prescribing”.

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