Commercialism in Medicine and Pharmaceuticals industry

Commercialism in Medicine and Pharmaceuticals industry

 Medicine and pharmaceutical industry is one of the most critical and fundamental industries for every human as the industry concern maintaining the excellent health of the people. Notably, no one individual knows when they can get sick, and thus they prepare for this undesirable course by having a credible and reliable insurance covers on health. Notably, every individual desire to get the best healthcare and within the shortest time. As such, the pharmaceuticals and medical industry have a responsibility to provide drugs and other healthcare services to the patients with passion and while upholding both professionalism and ethics. However, different healthcare systems offer some elements of business or commercialism in this vital industry. For instance, research shows that the United States has the most expensive healthcare system across the globe. In light of this, studies show that commercialism in this industry surpasses any height that one could think. The purpose of this paper is to interrogate how healthcare providers and pharmaceutical making companies collaborate to make unreasonable profits out of patient’s ill health.

Methodology

This research aims to get credible and quality information from various sources. As such, the research will gather data using interview data collection methods and observations. For the interview questions, this study will interview two practicing medical researchers and a practicing physician to gain an extra insight on the beside; this research will conduct an extensive literature review from reputable sources, including peer-reviewed journal articles accessible from the internet. Upon gathering this information, this research will analyze and compare the findings from the different sources before making an informed conclusion.

Literature review

In the last few decades, medicine and the pharmaceutical industry began to treat pharmaceuticals as a commodity market with flourishing revenues. Adashi (2015) argues that although the physicians and the other players in the medicine and pharmaceutical industry should get some income after their services, their focus should always be to passionately serve the patients to the best of their knowledge (Adashi 782). Although it is not a legally binding doctrine, all the practitioners in the healthcare industry must commit to the Hippocratic Oath that they all pledge to before joining the industry. One of the fundamental items in the Hippocratic Oath is the practitioner’s commitment to the service of others and passing knowledge that they have to other people in the industry and beyond.

Doctors, nurses, and other practitioners, as well as the drug manufacturers, must observe their commitment towards enhancing patients’ health rather than making profits. On the contrary, both the physicians and pharmaceutical manufacturers continue to reap unreasonable benefits from the sale of healthcare services and products at inflated prices (Kaur et al. 59).  A recent survey on the commercialization of medicine and pharmaceuticals sector reveals that the industry reaps a profit ranging from 9% to 25 % of the sales. The research also showed that the top 10 drug manufacturers across the United States get a minimum of 17% of the sales. In contrast, at least one drug manufacturing company gets 26% profit out of the total sales (Adashi 785). While the cost of drugs is exceeding, many people who can hardly afford high-cost drugs are feeling a pinch, and the latter is denying them their fundamental right to health.

Another research establishes that most of the doctors have networks with certain pharmaceutical manufacturers and give them some incentives to recommend their drugs to patients. Although the drugs can sometimes be of the required standards, it is highly unethical to work in the medicine and pharmaceutical industry to reap undue profits. The research by Gabriel (2016) establishes that many drug manufacturing companies collude with the Food and Drugs Administration panel to certify their products without following due process (Gabriel 591). In such an occurrence, panelists gain income while the drug manufacturer gets a go-ahead to distribute the product in the market for profits. In light of this, a significant number of players in the medicine and pharmaceutical industry forego the health concerns of the patients for their gains. The latter is both unprofessional and unethical.

Among all the drugs, prices of the brand name prescription drugs are increasingly becoming expensive, with a 12 % hike in a year. For instance, in less than five years, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, a leading drug manufacturer across the globe, hiked the price of Claritin more than ten times in 5 years between 2010 and 2014 to realize a 50 percent price increase (Gabriel 584). Because of these high costs, more than 8% of Americans no longer take these prescription pills.

Analysis

Dedication among medicine and pharmaceutical industry players to increase the costs of drugs and healthcare services for profits significantly contributes to the undesirable inaccessibility of health care across the United States. Apparent and indisputable information gathered from personal observation, in the literature review as well as from the interview, is that healthcare costs across the united states are extremely for the majority, especially the low and medium-earners (Gabriel 584). The literature review demonstrates that over 75% of U.S physicians sitting “on the clinical practice guideline panels” have financial links to the pharmaceuticals manufacturing companies. Agreeably, one of the interviewees asserted that physicians connect with the manufacturers in many ways, including areas when the physicians want to get more information on a particular drug before they prescribe to a patient (Fisher & Kalbaugh 71). The interviewee also agreed that drug manufacturers give them appreciation or rewards in form of gifts as a motivation to continue providing healthcare services to those in need.

The literature review also established that drug manufacturers give tokens not only to the doctors but also to the medical researchers and other experts. Other than the gifts, manufacturers give out reasonable monetary stipends and free trips to luxurious hotels for conferences as a marketing strategy (Kaur et al. 57). Notably, these marketing strategies are indeed attractive as most of the target populations like the doctors and nurses as well as the researchers make efforts to prescribe the company’s drugs. The latter increases profits to the firm. Indirectly, drug manufacturers add these marketing costs to the drugs and hence patients experience high cost of drugs.

While disagreeing that doctors divert their attention to profits instead of improved patient health, the interviewees acknowledged that drug manufacturing companies have the right to market their products especially in this 21st century that proves to be highly competitive. It is thus clear that medicine and pharmaceutical industry has become a lucrative business sector where the players pocket considerable profits from the patients.  Although technology has input to the high levels of health concerns in the modern world, a research by Kaur et al. (2014) argues that higher levels of outsourcing as well as changed attitudes and commitment by health practitioners play considerable role on the increased variety of diseases and health concerns. Often, when doctors prescribe high dosages of a given drug to a patient, patients are likely to develop other health concerns including heart diseases, lung problems and kidney failures. These challenges can high cause death of the patient. Therefore, patients will have a cycle of diseases while increasing length of stay in the hospitals. Besides, when doctors in a certain facility do not agree on which company to market, they lack collaboration and hence decreased work performance at the facility.

Apart from giving some stipends to the health practitioners and researchers, pharmaceuticals manufacturers pay politician and celebrities to push for particular drugs and policies concerning particular drugs. Notably, physicians and other stakeholders show conflict of interests when they receive other gains from the drug manufacturers. One of the most worrying thing is the collusion between the panels and the doctors to pass some drugs without following the due process (Fisher & Kalbaugh 38). A recent research argues that doctors with close connections with pharmaceuticals manufacturing companies do not have any problem with that company’s product costs. Besides, some physicians often prescribe high dosages to the patients and expensive drugs from their preferred companies without considering patient experiences. As such, United States healthcare costs continue to be expensive while doctors continue to pocket unethically gained benefits. A former sales representative of Eli Lilly Company reported to The New York Times that they use all strategies to ensure that doctors agree to their terms including giving them money to prescribe their drugs.

Conclusion

The above discussion and analysis on commercialization in pharmaceuticals and medicine industry demonstrates that Americans have been experiencing and will continue to experience high health care costs as long as the payers compete towards getting profits. The research establishes that both doctors and manufacturers are critical players and when they collaborate for their gains, patients will always suffer high costs. The research also determines that manufacturers hire private researchers to carry out certain experiments. As such, considerable number of doctors prefer working in the private sector where they can influence the manufacturers and reap good benefits. Private Doctors also are able to freely schedule their work and hence limited levels of burnouts.  Nonetheless, when such doctors experience burnouts, they can relieve themselves by using reaped benefits as they find appropriate in addition to having luxurious trips paid for by the manufacturers.

Works cited

Gabriel, J. M. (2016). Pharmaceutical patenting and the transformation of American medical ethics. The British Journal for the History of Science, 49(4), 577-600.

Adashi, E. Y. (2015). Money and medicine: Indivisible and irreconcilable. AMA journal of ethics, 17(8), 780-786.

Kaur, I. P., Kakkar, V., Deol, P. K., Yadav, M., Singh, M., & Sharma, I. (2014). Issues and concerns in nanotech product development and its commercialization. Journal of Controlled Release, 193, 51-62.

Fisher, J. A., & Kalbaugh, C. A. (2012). United States private-sector physicians and pharmaceutical contract research: a qualitative study. PLoS medicine, 9(7).

Appendix

Interview questions

1. How do you observe United States healthcare system in terms of cost?
2. As a player in medicine and pharmaceutical industry, is the cost ideal?
3. Have you ever received a token from a manufacturer during their marketing efforts?
4. Does the tokens received from drug manufacturers motivate physicians to prescribe drugs from that company?