Prescription Drugs, Marketing Strategies and Implications
Pharmaceutical companies in the United States have become very creative in the way they market their products. They nowadays use direct-to-consumer advertising to sell their drugs. One cannot sit down to watch the TV and fail to see several pharmaceutical companies advertising their products. Millions of Americans, after watching the drug adverts go to their doctors to ask them for prescriptions. These advertisements have proved to be very useful because the pharmaceuticals tell the people to ask their doctors. The effectiveness of this advertisement strategy has seen many drug companies increase their spending on direct-to-consumer adverts. This paper will explore the marketing strategies used by these drug companies and the implication of such strategies.
Pharmaceuticals are among the largest companies globally. In the United States, these big pharmaceuticals make their profits by selling prescription medications. Because only medical doctors or professionals can prescribe these medications, these companies direct their advertisements to pharmacists, doctors, and a host of other health providers. They do this in the hope that these campaigns will generate high prescriptions for their brands. The big pharmaceuticals have pushed themselves into patient-doctor relationships as a way of increasing their sales. They directly target patients through television adverts. These adverts encourage millions of Americans to ask their doctors how particular prescription brands will help them.
The ways in which these adverts are presented to consumers have dramatically affected the way Americans think about their health and their well-being. The drug companies begin by branding their products. In the pharmaceutical industry, branding is a strategy used to create emotional bonds between consumers and products. It is these emotional bonds that drive Americans to visit their doctors and ask how the brands they saw being advertised can help them. One challenge with relying on the adverts is that they do not give people good reasons to ask for prescriptions. Most of them request for prescriptions not because of their efficacy but because they have developed emotional bonds towards the drugs or brands because of the adverts. Most of what people see in the adverts is pictures or videos of people living healthy lives after using the products being advertised. However, the drug companies never present medical conditions in the adverts; the vibrant and healthy people are never shown suffering from the ailments that the brands are to cure. Instead, we only see them after they have taken the chemicals, and their health has been restored.
One other thing that the adverts misrepresent is the safety of using drugs. Some of the medications being advertised by the big pharmaceuticals have been found to be very risky. For instance, drug reactions in the United are the cause of about 1.5 million hospitalizations and 100,000 deaths. An excellent example of how these adverts can be misleading is the withdrawal of Vioxx, a painkiller that was linked to increased risks of a heart attack. These over promotions of drugs can also mislead medical professionals into prescribing unnecessary medications to patients, or even overprescribe drugs to people they are not intended for.
Overprescription of these medications or drugs poses a number of challenges. For instance, prescription medications have the potential to lead to overdependence or addiction problems. Prescription opioids, for example, have the potential to be misused or abused by people. Prescription opioids are used to relieve pains, and some can be used to cure conditions such as diarrhea and cough. Because of their relaxing effects, opioids can also be used for non-medical reasons. But if prescriptions are not followed strictly, opioids can be very addictive. In the years 2017, an opioid overdose committee recommended the opening of safe consumption sites in Philadelphia. The purpose of the safe was to provide people with a place where they could take their prescription drugs in the presence of trained staff who would then help reverse any overdoses. This is a good example that shows that people can abuse prescribed medications, leading to addiction problems.
Drug scares did not begin recently. Nationwide drug scares started in the early 20th century, and they focused on cocaine and opiates. These two drugs had been used by many for years by mainly middle-aged, middle-class white men and women. But when their use shifted to the working-class males, the government began to worry. The 1914 Harrison Narcotics Act was a product of this scare. The government passed drug laws in the hope that problems related to drug use would be reduced. While the laws did not accomplish their intended goals, they did expand the quality and quantity of social control, especially over groups that were considered to be threatening or dangerous.
The use of drugs has cost America millions of lives. The number continues to grow because of the failure to regulate the pharmaceutical industry. Illicit drugs continue to be advertised to millions of Americans, and this is catalyzing the overdose pandemic. Perhaps the solution to the problems posed by these drug companies is to push for the opening of consumption sites. This way, Americans will be able to consume their prescribed drugs under the supervision of trained professionals. This will, in turn, ensure that any addiction problems are reversed by the professionals while still in the safe consumption sites. Many case studies indicate that intervention procedures are an effective way to reduce risks related to drug use, such as deaths, risky behaviors. Safe consumption sites, for example, have not been associated with increased drug use or an increase in criminal activities.
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