[geeks] Drug prices (was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro)

[Sandwich Maker]

" From: Dan Sikorski <me at dansikorski.com>
" 
" Sandwich Maker wrote:
" > " From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
" > " Personally, I'd like to see Pharma's be prevented from advertising
" > " drugs to consumers here in teh US. That just makes no sense to me -
" > " your Doctor wants to prescribe compound A, but you convince him that
" > " you want compound B because you like the ad they ran in Time Magazine?
" > " WTF?
" >
" > agreed.  the info should be available somehow; i've heard of enough
" > cases where the patient was more informed than the doctor, but the
" > slanted half-truths that pass for advertising should be banned.
"    
" I've always figured that the advertisements were targeted to people who 
" do not go to the doctor and have problems that new drugs could help with. 

that's the excuse, but it's sooo attractive to pointy-headed
business mgrs to try and sell -everyone- on it.  it's
*just*good*business*, at least superficially.

" For example, there is a new drug for psoriasis.  Although i have no clue 
" what the effectiveness of it is, let's assume for this example that it's 
" very effective.  Someone who has psoriasis may have visited the doctor 
" several times in their life and never had an effective treatment, or 
" never visited a doctor about it because they knew that there were no 
" effective treatments.  The advertisement informs this person that there 
" is a new treatment available and that they should go talk to their 
" doctor about it. 

contrast this with a bladder-incontinence drug i noticed not too long
ago because the chemical formula description sounded like a b-vitamin
derivative.  25 years ago when i was really into nutrition and
studying chemistry besides, i discovered one of the effects of large
doses of one of the b-complex vitamins is that it relaxes the bladder
muscle...

why invent a drug derivative?  you can't patent a vitamin.

" I can justify the existence of the advertisements this way, but I 
" certainly will not defend the misleading nature of a lot of them.  Some 
" of the advertisements I've seen don't really seem to indicate what the 
" drug is used to treat, they just made it sound like everyone's life 
" would be better if they took it, as long as they're willing to live with 
" a laundry list of side effects.

['side effects' is a misnomer for a start.  drugs have a constellation
of effects; they just pick one to market for and call the rest
unimportant.]

" As far as the patient being more informed than their doctor, that's not 
" difficult.  When i have a medical condition, I read as much about it as 
" possible.  My general practitioner cannot possibly devote that much time 
" to researching the specific conditions of all of his patients.  I expect 
" him to have broad knowledge of health conditions and their treatments.  
" On the other hand, if i visit a specialist, that is a different story.  
" I would expect a specialist to know much more than me about his specific 
" area of expertise.

we're on the same pg here.  advertisements should be informational,
not promotional, and doctors aren't all-seeing gods.  certainly nobody
has more interest in -your- future than -you-.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought