Big Pharma's Marketing Machine-Real Diabetes Truth

Real Diabetes Truth

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Big Pharma's Marketing Machine

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Dear Member

In a recent television documentary, aired on NBC in the US and entitled "Your Money or Your Life", a pharmaceutical company CEO was asked why drugs come with such high price tags, especially in America. His answer was that it was all down to research and development costs. "Do we want cheap drugs now, and no drugs in the future?" he asked, "Or more expensive drugs now, and a constant stream of drugs?"

Of course, a constant stream of expensive drugs is exactly what Big Pharma wants. It doesn't matter if they don't work or if they kill people, so long as somebody keeps on paying for them. The NHS drugs bill for 2014/15 was a staggering 15.5 billion pounds in England alone, around 10 per cent of which was spent on diabetes drugs.

Dr Marcia Angell, a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor in chief of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, calls Big Pharma's bluff in her book,The Truth About the Drug Companies. In it, she reveals that drug companies actually spend far more on aggressive marketing campaigns than on R & D and that, basically, they charge whatever they think they can get away with.

Dr Angell goes on to say that the pharmaceutical industry is "primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit". And the fact is, very few "new" drugs are truly innovative. Most are simply re-hashed existing ones. Making a tiny change to an old drug, or combining two together in a single product, can mean new patent rights, a new marketing campaign and big new profits, without any expensive research – and without any added benefit to patients, either. So, when you hear about the next new "miracle" diabetes drug, don't be taken in by the marketing hype. And, more importantly, think very carefully before allowing yourself to become a guinea pig in testing it!

While nutritional supplements can help you to manage diabetes and its complications without the risks associated with prescription drugs, even here all may not be as it seems. For years, we have been told that we need to take calcium supplements to prevent bone fractures. But new research now casts serious doubt on their effectiveness and flags up a few risks, too. More on this in my next blog post.