Why Drug Prices Soared-
Hint: It’s the Commercials
Did you ever wonder how much the average commercial costs? You know the ones that fill up the screen. Cars, appliances, vacations, real estate, etc.? They do cost quite a bit of money absolutely. But what these sponsors pay for a shot at your attention when you’re settled down to watch a show does not compare to the ads and commercials for pharmaceuticals. Yup, Big Pharma has got them beat.
If you look at, really look at these commercials, it almost makes you think of a Broadway show or TV movie. Sets have to be constructed or sites have to be booked. Actors and dancers must be hired for this gig, add in costumes, (always theme-colored to match the drug being sold), additional minutes to make sure they’re getting their product across, and music, and you have a ‘production’ displayed for the drug. Big bucks are being spent here and the top spenders in the pharmaceutical market will naturally pass the added cost of this pseudo Broadway production to on to the consumers.
I am not a fan of commercials to begin with. Oh, okay, except for the ‘Limu-Emu and Doug’ ones which I find cute and silly at the same time. They’re short and they make me smile. But that’s pretty much it as far as commercials go for me.
The drug commercials spout the wonder of their product, but they are drugs to be sure. Just listen to the side effects read VERY quickly at the end of the commercial. My favorite side effect is the one citing ‘may cause sudden death’. Perhaps we might want to put that at the beginning of the commercial?
The thing is that these commercials are geared to one purpose only: financial gain for the manufacturer. The expense of these drugs, causing some families to have to decide between food or medication, really comes from greed and high-cost productions.
Drugs that help humanity need to be affordable. No other country in the world has the high-cost of drugs like we do in the United States. President Biden has made a good start by getting drug companies to work with Medicare on certain needed drugs, but Big Pharma needs to clean house and take control of their own outrageous price gouging tactics. Let’s get it done.
My next article will concern for-profit hospitals and their ‘commercial productions’. Come on CEOs. Your hospitals are not hotels.
© 2023 copyright Kristen Houghton all rights reserved
