From multinationals to medicines coming into the house
Brecciaroli and Marcello Federico Schiavi
from Corriere.it del 28/11/10
Cosa sappiamo veramente delle medicine che prendiamo? Nulla o quasi , ma riponiamo la nostra fiducia nelle mani dei medici che ce le prescrivono, convinti che loro sappiano tutto, come se quel camice bianco fosse una sorta di garanzia inequivocabile. Ma è davvero cosi? Abbiamo indagato per Current TV sul business miliardario che gira attorno ai farmaci e sugli interessi delle case farmaceutiche che, troppo spesso, prendono il sopravvento sulla salute delle persone. Abbiamo analizzato le strategie di marketing usate dalle multinazionali del farmaco e conosciuto le pressioni che vengono esercitate sui medici affinché prescribe certain medicines. The result is the investigation Vanguard entitled the pharmaceutical business: a survey that intends to place particular attention to what our doctors are truly informed about the quality of the medications we take and advise on what are the people who speculate on our health for profit's sake.
The Disease mongering is the example par excellence is a term that means "to sell diseases," and is the most extreme practices of pharmaceutical marketing. You can not advertise it prescription medicines, and then the final frontier of marketing is advertising to diseases, sometimes inventing them. The most striking example is the H1N1 influenza in 2009, swine flu, which creates a simple alarmism and panic throughout the world . It is a very common practice that we have tried to analyze. The other aspect that has emerged from the investigation are fraud against the NHS , too often the focus of news reports because of doctors who, in cahoots with medical representatives and pharmacists, committed the offense more widespread: the comparaggio. A real tangent pharmaceutical pay informants ai medici per far sì che prescrivano quantità notevoli dei medicinali da loro pubblicizzati. Il Sistema sanitario nazionale è l'apparato statale che richiede più soldi in assoluto: decine di miliardi di euro all'anno e controlli non sempre efficaci creano un ambiente ideale per le truffe. Per capire come si convince un medico a prescrivere un farmaco invece che un altro (magari uguale ma di una marca diversa ) siamo andati a parlare con chi si occupa proprio di marketing per conto delle case farmaceutiche: manager e informatori scientifici del farmaco hanno accettato di svelarci attraverso testimonianze anonime i trucchi del loro mestiere e le collusioni spesso illecite che si creano tra i nostri dottori e i produttori di farmaci. Ne è revealed a bleak picture. Often, even the doctors know all the side effects of medication prescribing, simply because the emissaries of the pharmaceutical companies fail to disclose it to sell more .
the pharmaceutical business is an inquiry into the vested interests that bring a pill factory in the palm of our hand . A path made of dynamics that often have little or nothing of scientific and where our health is a goal marginal. We investigated the effects of the marketing policies of pharmaceutical companies on public spending and found that too many people fail to take advantage of every day. In this tangled world, however, sometimes a case of excellence comes to sweeten the pill is the case of the San Camillo hospital in Rome where, thanks to new technologies and the use of drugs not covered by a patent, you can protect both state coffers that the health of patients.
From the presentation of the program at Current TV:
From marketing, queen only rule in the distribution of drugs, to agreements between governments and multinational companies for "management" of disease, from the confessions of anonymous informants pharmaceuticals, the strange role key practitioners: what lies behind a drug and what is really required? Starting from 1 December at 21:10
Now you know what to watch next Wednesday! Current TV, which is the channel of the former U.S. vice-president and Nobel Peace Prize 2007 Al Gore, the found on channel 130 of SKY .
