Have You Been Fooled by the These Dirty Pharma Marketing Tricks?

How does the pharmaceutical industry get a product through development, testing and approval and onto your insurer's formulary, television set and bathroom shelf? (And Wall Street profit reports?) And how does it do it so, so seamlessly you think it's your idea? Here are some of pharma's dirtiest tricks.

Playing the Price Spread

In drug sales, the price pharmacies pay and the government reimburses are not the same. This lets pharma inflate government's Average Wholesale Price (AWP) and play the spread either for kickbacks or sales "incentives." Exploiting the price difference is so common, AWP could stand for Ain't What's Paid says Tony West, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil division, because "the only purchasers who paid the inflated, reported drug price were you, the American taxpayers." Maybe the classic claim "I got it wholesale" isn't so good after all.

No Appointment to see the Doctor Necessary by Martha Rosenberg
 

Double dealing at the Pharmacy

Why did pharma send letters to doctors through CVS pharmacy extolling the expensive drug Zyprexa? Even though CVS' pharmacy benefit manager, AdvancePCS, is pledged   to negotiate the lowest drug prices for its insurer and pensions plan clients? Because pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) increasingly play both side of the street, says the Boston Globe. The extra $3,000 to $9,000 per person per year that Zyprexa costs over a generic will do a lot for Lilly stock. If you don't think about health insurance premiums.

Faux Patient Groups

Ever wonder how patient groups lobbying FDA to approve some expensive drug you've never heard of suddenly appear? Replete with tears and sob stories? The patient front groups, sometimes called astroturf, are aggregated and orchestrated by pharma. One of the largest, the "grassroots" National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), lobbies Medicaid programs not to substitute less expensive drugs and was investigated by Sen. Charles Grassley for undisclosed pharma links. How can you tell an astroturf group? Its web site looks just like pharma's.

FDA Foreplay

Sometimes when pharma thinks it is sitting on a revolutionary drug, it doesn't wait for FDA approval and begins marketing directly to the public. A recent example was a drug to treat female sexual dysfunction and hopefully be a blockbuster like Viagra. What was not to like? Who could say no? But after Boehringer-Ingelheim debuted its pink Viagra for " hypoactive sexual desire disorder" (HSDD) at a medical conference last year and rolled out its elaborate Sex Brain Body: Make the Connection web site and campaign starring TV personality Lisa Rinna, FDA did say no. Seems even though Boehringer-Ingelheim was effective in "raising awareness" about female sexual dysfunction, something else wasn't effective: the drug.

Pharma Service Announcements

Like ghostwriting, the origins of pharma's unbranded advertising are disguised and they look legit. But when TV, radio and web messages push "awareness" of diseases like ADHD, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) or Excessive Sleepiness (ES), be suspicious. Real diseases aren't given initials for quick recall and easy reference. Nor do they come with snappy self-quizzes and pretty patient models. Unbranded messages also pimp the PSA (public service announcement) money that media outlets have for actual public issues.

National "Interests of Health

The billions of research dollars the taxpayer-supported National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocates each year are supposed to benefit the public and be free from pharma influence. So why was a researcher stripped of an NIH grant because of hidden pharma ties, allowed to resume NIH funding at a new university? Psychiatrist Charles Nemeroff not only qualified for NIH funds when he surfaced at the University of Miami last year, he sits on the actual NIH committees which consider other researchers 'grants, reports Chronicle of Higher Education. A fox guarding the hen, or pork house.

Continuing Marketing Education

Pharma-subsidized Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses are a bonanza for pharma since doctors need the "credits" to keep their licenses. But what are they learning? A recent "course" offered by Medscape titled Quadrivalent HPV Vaccine May Be Effective in Women 24 to 45 Years Old told participants after taking the course, they would be able to "specify the currently recommended age range" for the vaccine. Especially if they could read the title! Another course offered by the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine tells participates to "lobby your legislators" for pharma-related Medicare funding. No wonder, Congress recently investigated the billion dollar industry CME industry for illegal marketing. Too bad it couldn't investigate for stupidity.

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