I came across the following in my emails the other day and could not help but be feel that the world has been changing without us even noticing and I really do not like where it is heading. Brian Hale
Hi Guys,
With all the medical drama we have been through over the last 3 years I’d like to share with you info from a book I bought in 2006 which is about pharma companies and their marketing ploys. At a personal level around that time I kept bumping into clients and prospects who were on, or were being put on, statins for cholesterol issues. The Doctors who used to prescribe medication when your C level was say 4 or above was being prescribed when the level was around 2. That’s the average of the HDL and LDL. The book explains why that change occurred, not only on this health issue but also on 9 others too! I believe the book is still available today.
HOW WOULD YOU IMAGINE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES GROW THEIR MARKET SHARE ……….and increase their profits? Nov 2022
Would they develop new and better products to better help those they currently serve?
Would they move in to markets that they are not currently servicing?
Would they expand their market to include people who are not sick?
I’m in the process of doing some decluttering. Part of that process is to reduce the number of books we have accumulated over the years. Many are of the self improvement, biographies and autobiographies, health related, business and marketing stories.
I have always taken an interest in health issues which explains why I joined a gym a few decades ago, and researched supplements and natural ways to retain good health. The natural health industry has become very big over the last 30 years and I imagine this has had a not insignificant impact on the medical profession.
One of these books relates to the questions I have asked above. Let me quote from the back cover;
This remarkable investigation of the sickness industry is by two accomplished writers with an incredible story to tell.
Three decades ago, the head of one of the world’s leading drug companies made some remarkably candid comments. Wishing his company was more like the chewing gum maker Wrigley’s, the chief executive of Merck said it has long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people, and ‘sell to everyone’. That dream now drives the marketing machinery of one of the most profitable industries on the planet.
Using their dominating influence in medical science, drug companies are marketing fear in order to redefine human illness. In alliance with company friendly doctors and sponsored patient groups, the all-powerful pharmaceutical industry is helping to widen the very definitions of disease, in order to expand markets for its drugs.
With compelling clarity the book reveals how the ups and downs of daily life are becoming mental disorders, and common complaints are being transformed into frightening conditions. Shyness is Social Anxiety Disorder, PMS is a psychiatric illness called PMDD, and active children now have ADHD. As more and more ordinary people are turned into patients, drug companies move ever closer to that dream of selling to everyone.
Globally they have 80,000 sales reps pushing the new sickness definitions and of course have the solution.
And when was the book…..Selling Sickness, How Drug Companies are turning us all into Patients, by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels published? Would you believe in 2005!
The book covers 10 specific conditions from high cholesterol, Depression, Menopause, Attention deficit disorder, High blood pressure, Pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, Social anxiety disorder, Osteoporosis, Irritable bowel syndrome and Female sexual dysfunction.
No doubt all these pharmaceutical companies claim to follow the ESG philosophy, in that they put the customer first, and everything they do is for the betterment of mankind. And fund Manager’s probably fall over themselves to invest in these companies on behalf of their captive investors.
We have seen in recent years seen just how pharma companies use their power.
And people probably wonder why alternative medicine has become such a big industry!!
Here’s to your good health, Cheers,
Phil. BEEP BUSINESS SERVICES
