- ISBN13: 9781560258568
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of Merck, one of the world’s largest drug companies, told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley’s. It had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people so that Merck could “sell to everyone.” Gadsden’s dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry on earth. Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness, an… More >>
Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients
Tags: Biggest, boundaries, chewing gum, Companies, drugs, fortune magazine, gum maker, Into, merck, Patients, Pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical companies, profitable industry, remainder mark, Selling, Sickness, Turning, World's, wrigley
#1 by Brian ONeill on March 16, 2010 - 3:03 pm
There is a revolution in health care and it begins with the patient. The more a patient understands about their health, in all likelihood, the healthier they will be. Health care costs are skyrocketing but most of the expense comes from hospitalization, nursing home care and physician visits. Only 10% of our nation’s health care costs are due to the use of pharmaceuticals. Healthy lifestyle choices and preventative medicine are the only ways to improve your quality of life and keep a lid on costs. Many conditions have no symptoms and if left untreated can lead to even bigger issues that require more invasive therapy. Patients who treat their high blood pressure with medication prior to having a stroke or kidney failure have an improved quality of life. Patients with symptoms of erectile dysfunction may learn that they have underlying cardiovascular disease that can be corrected without surgery. High cholesterol may lead to blocked arteries that could require an expensive by-pass surgery unless statin drugs are used. Depression certainly lowers the quality of life of an individual and may impact all aspects of their personal relationships and professional life. This book seems to take none of this seriously. While becoming wealthy themselves, the authors poke fun at very real issues that if not corrected will lead to more serious problems down the road. The science behind discovery of drug is very complex and education of the patient is a high priority. The authors of this book should have spent their time alerting their readers as to what symptoms should be recognized and presented to a physician. By giving these conditions names, the patient can communicate and understand their disease while receiving the treatment they need. If you buy this book, I would ask that you do not complain about the high cost of healthcare or your poor health.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Frank M. Berentsen on March 16, 2010 - 3:18 pm
A must-read for anyone who ever went to the doctor.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Not a drone on March 16, 2010 - 5:24 pm
This book does an excellent job exposing where some companies have done wrong. I can write the same book about almost any industry in the country. Now how many of them have developed a life-changing drug like Enbrel? As others have pointed out, this book (and most others like it) do a miserable job of providing context. Our life expectancies are lower than other industrialized nations because we are the fatest people on the planet, I can only imagine what it would be like if we didn’t take the drugs that keep us alive. Can people exercise and take care of themselves and avoid a lot of these issues? Sure they can-but they don’t and then they go to the doctor expecting a miracle cure. Can they not feed their little kids pounds of high frucotse corn syrup and avoid turming them into 20 year old diabetics, sure they can-but they don’t. Every doctor I’ve ever been to or talked to says they tell every patient to exercise and watch their diet first (before ever prescribing anything). When the patient fails to comply then the doctor does what they think is the best thing to keep their patient alive. Pharmas certainly do wrong things, like any other business, and they need to be policed, but they should not be the scapegoat for sensationalist journalists (who are, guess what, selling the news/books) and short-sighted politicians are are unwilling or unable to deal with the larger healthcare issues our nation now faces.
Read this book, but please read others as well (that ought to make Amazon happy!)-try some that don’t agree with what the media has programmed you to think about big pharma-if you can find any.
Rating: 3 / 5
#4 by Y. Smetannikov on March 16, 2010 - 7:42 pm
The book presents ten examples of unethical conduct by pharmaceutical compnies in order to promote their products. The tactics include misrepresenting statistical facts, overstating health risks, influencing medical authorities, creating new medical conditions in order to sell drugs for them and so on.
All the facts in the book are true. But the impression the book creates is skewed. Modern medicine cannot exist without pharmaceutical industry, and the relationship between it and medical professionals is more complex than portrayed in this text. I also believe that most doctors deserve more credit when it comes to choosing treatments for their patients.
But opinions aside, the book actually is getting boring as it progresses, probably because it is clear how each chapter will end soon after the beginning. I also expected less political and more medical information. I also think the authors should have touched on other reasons of proliferation of drug culture in modern society.
Overall I was disappointed.
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by Straightforward on March 16, 2010 - 8:38 pm
I am a family physician who does indeed believe that there is too much medical care in the US. Nevertheless this book cannot see the forest for the trees. There are many issues where there is clearly questionable value provided by the medical industry, but I dont think that they found those. Some of the areas they have chosen, they may be quite wrong on, such as the value of lowering blood pressure. Other areas they did choose to address have not become major issues because physicians and patients are not as easily duped as they may think. I could go on for some, but lets just that the book is one sided and not very good.
Rating: 2 / 5