How Has Healthcare Been Reduced to Buyer Beware?
Posted By Dr. Mercola | May 16 2012
It's a disgusting, dishonorable way to generate sales, but it works: according to AlterNet, in the U.S. every $1000 that a drug company spends on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising produces 24 new patients. It's a bonanza that generates seven times more customers than if the companies didn't advertise. Vioxx―Merck's failed drug that caused 140,000 cardiac events and deaths before it was pulled from the market―was sold this way.
Merck admits that Vioxx was never intended for the general public. Yet Merck advertised it, and people saw the ads and started demanding it from their doctors, and Merck sold 20 million prescriptions―and some people died before Merck pulled both the ads and the drug. But Merck isn't alone in this; direct-to-consumer marketing is a general practice by almost every drug company in America.
The problem is that, like Vioxx, some of the drugs being advertised are not what they appear, meaning if you see it advertised, the old axiom, caveat emptor―let the buyer beware―is something to remember.
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