Med schools, journals fight big pharma's sway

I was an office nurse to two surgeons in the 60's. Even then, pharmaceutical companies were a big infuence in doctors lives. Almost everyday, a rep. from a pharmaceutical company would come in and ask to see the doctors. Through the mail, we would, almost daily, get samples of drugs to pass on to the patients. It's a win, win situation. Doctor has the drug, give it to the patient and says " Try this for two weeks, if it works, call me and i'll write you a prescription and the pharmaceutical compay makes millions of money. I am now a "senior citizen" and am very aware of what doctors want to prescribe for my age related conditions. I am very angry that, if my cholesterol level is somewhat elevated, my doctor will not tell me to lose a few pounds, see a nutritionist, exercize a little more but will immediately prescribe a drug that, most llikey, the research has been funded by a pharmaceutical company.

Enough is Enough. Everyone wants to blame big pharma for the problems in health care and make the industry look evil ---- yet those same individuals and groups are lining up for a medication to cure this or that, or to take money for research, a hospital wing, etc.... So, let's shut big pharma down, no advertising to the medical community, no ads on tv or in print media, no money for research..... and all of a sudden the picture changes! Start looking into the insurance industry if you want to find fraud, kick-backs, collusion, and the list goes on.

Just treat them like what they act like: the tobacco companies. Their potential to hurt people is as great if not greater, the cash available to them is similiar in scope, they look at marketing much the same way: get em while they are young, and then piously tell us how much they care about patients. They don't really give a hoot about patients, costs or how well their products work except for how if affects the bottom line.

The major difference with the tobacco companies is that the tobacco companies didn't have insurance companies to help them. Just think if tomorrow all insurance was cancelled and patients could only pay for what they could afford, the companies might start looking for and producing products that truly help people and then you would see the prices start to come down, all the necessary things to get this part of the healthcare mess under control