Pharmaceutical companies are carrying out huge marketing
campaigns overseas. Their strategy is to have chronic pain be approached as a
serious medical condition in need of treatment, and to seriously discredit any
speculation about the deadly risks of opioids. Mundipharma, a network of
companies that sells OxyContin, has coined medical experts’ reluctance to
prescribe opioids “opiophobia.” The company has hired a team of medical experts, patient
advocates and celebrities to push the message that opioid painkillers are safe
and effective; and has even been running training seminars in China, as well as
many other countries, in an attempt to get medical professionals to overcome their
opiophobia.
Such companies are targeting countries in Latin America, Asia
the Middle East and Africa, which are less equipped to deal with addiction. In class, we spoke about the dangerous side-effects such drugs have. Why do you think any medical expert would then agree to advocate for them overseas? Are painkiller companies, in fact, exporting addiction?
Source: http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/22/14039122/opioid-epidemic-oxycontin-mundipharma
It seems greed overcomes common sense here. From an outside perspective, looking at the opioid epidemic in the US, you can see how horrible the repercussions are of over prescribing opioids (as well as other prescription medication). We have a major addiction problem on top of our inability to accurately prescribe medicine. We also talked in class about how our exportation of tobacco was a major money play and I see the same thing happening here.
ReplyDeleteI agree with David. Although medical experts likely would not deem it moral to advocate for increased opioid use overseas, a big enough paycheck may change their minds. I hope that the governments that these drugs are being pushed in have some power in order to create laws and regulations in order to restrict the use of opioids.
ReplyDeleteLike Kriti mentioned in class on Tuesday, I feel that taking pills and other forms of medication is definitely a bigger part of the culture here than in other countries. I've found it to be a lot more common in the States than anywhere else I've lived or visited. My fear is that this push to convince people in other countries that opioids are safe, will eventually be enough increase reliance on medication for their populations as well.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the question of cherry-picking your medical experts. It's the same strategy that climate deniers use. Get a large enough sample, and you're bound to find a quack to shill for you.
ReplyDeleteThe tobacco industry has been exploiting people in other nations for many decades for big profits so this makes me sad as the countries that the pharmaceutical companies are targeting won't know what hit them.
ReplyDelete