[NVIC] "Diseasemongering" To Boost Pharma Profits.

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

NVICNews <ne...@nvic.org> wrote:

To: <ne...@nvic.org>
Subject: [NVIC] "Diseasemongering" To Boost Profits
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:56:52 -0400
From: ne...@nvic.org (NVICNews)

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2128371,00.html
The Times, UK


April 11, 2006

Drugs companies 'inventing diseases to boost their profits'
By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent


Pharmaceutical companies are systematically creating diseases in order to
sell more of their products, turning healthy people into patients and
placing many at risk of harm, a special edition of a leading medical journal
claims today.

The practice of “diseasemongering” by the drug industry is promoting
non-existent illnesses or exaggerating minor ones for the sake of profits,
according to a set of essays published by the open-access journal Public
Library of Science Medicine.

The special issue, edited by David Henry, of Newcastle University in
Australia, and Ray Moynihan, an Australian journalist, reports that
conditions such as female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and “restless legs syndrome” have been
promoted by companies hoping to sell more of their drugs.

Other minor problems that are a normal part of life, such as symptoms of the
menopause, are also becoming increasingly “medicalised”, while risk factors
such as high cholesterol levels or osteoporosis are being presented as
diseases in their own right, according to the editors.

“Disease-mongering turns healthy people into patients, wastes precious
resources and causes iatrogenic (medically induced) harm,” they say. “Like
the marketing strategies that drive it, disease-mongering poses a global
challenge to those interested in public health, demanding in turn a global
response.”

Doctors, patients and support groups need to be more aware that
pharmaceutical companies are taking this approach, and more research is
needed into the changing ways in which conditions are presented, according
to the writers.

Disease-awareness campaigns are often funded by drug companies, and “more
often designed to sell drugs than to illuminate or inform or educate about
the prevention of illness or the maintenance of health”, they say.

Particular conditions that are highlighted in the journal include sexual
function in both men and women. The prevalence of female sexual dysfunction,
one paper claims, has been highly exaggerated to provide a new market for
drugs, while the makers of anti-impotence medicines, such as Viagra and
Cialis, have been involved with their presentation as lifestyle drugs that
can boost the sexual prowess of healthy men.

Ordinary shyness is routinely presented as a social anxiety disorder and
treated with antidepressants, while newly identified conditions such as
“restless legs syndrome” — a constant urge to move one’s legs — are
presented as being much more common than they really are.

Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry,
rejected the accusations, pointing out that Britain has firm safeguards
against disease-mongering. Many of the authors’ criticisms, he said, were
aimed squarely at countries such as the United States, where pharmaceuticals
can be openly advertised directly to patients.

“Drug companies are not allowed to communicate directly with patients, and
we do not invent diseases,” he said.

“We provide information that there are treatments out there that might help
certain conditions, but at the end of the day it is down to health
professionals to decide if they are appropriate.

“The best safeguard is that the doctor who knows the product and knows the
patient’s history is the one who decides what to prescribe.”


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