Is Your Doctor on the Payroll? The Hidden Influence of Big Pharma Kickbacks

Some doctors in America profit off the drugs they push! The most powerful persuasion techniques come through doctors and hospitals because Big Pharma pays doctors to drug you up! Drug companies give doctors kick-backs (and call it education, that way it is legal) such as pens, equipment, and drug samples along with other more extreme (cash) hand-outs. Is your doctor on Big Pharma's payroll? Is it time for Big Pharma to disclose it's payments to doctors?

Most Americans would agree the answer to these questions are long overdue. These doctors and institutions create a relationship and become walking advertisements for these companies that give the wrong message to patients. Consumer reports for drugs do not exist and in a large way, independent drug research is missing from the pharmaceutical industry. Patients and Doctors are educated about drugs by the drug companies themselves--which is like Beer companies educating people about alcoholism.

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There is momentum from a patient/customer coming in to see the doctor wanting a specific drug. The doctor has been exposed to the drug and is probably able to provided a sample. This turns the whole situation into a quick sale without deep discussion or thought. Some may object and say the doctor would hesitate. But the fact that the patient has been convinced of the drugs effectiveness through commercials, the doctor has accepted it’s promotion through bias education and kickbacks while also working with the model that time is money, to increase profits a doctor and hospital would get patients in and out as fast as they can with their (drug) satisfaction. It all creates tremendous overwhelming momentum to manipulate, promote, and sell brand-name pharmaceutical drugs without consideration of side-effects, risks, or cheaper generics. See Big Pharma Courts Doctors from CBS news for more. 

This problem is so relevant and pervasive that industry insiders, doctors, and hospitals have created organizations opposing, not drug companies, but drug marketing and sales representatives. The No Free Lunch Organization started a pledge called The No Free Lunch Pledge which healthcare providers can take which states they will not accept gifts and promotions from drug companies and look to objective science for drug promotion. 

One must remember, these corporations and CEO’s may not be evil or have malicious intent stemming toward the public. It is the machine capitalism has created that makes profit the bottom line of business. These companies are relentlessly competing for market share and are accomplishing it at the cost of public health. Almost all healthcare institutions, with the exception of programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, have been corrupted by privatization and has now made the most ethically sensitive industry a malicious monster for profit and capital gains. 

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