"Me too"

Okay...it's about time to take a shot at the drug companies.  Not that I want to bite the hand that fed me so well for nearly 18 years, but maybe just nip at it!  My parting from big pharma was not pleasant and certainly some of it was my own doing.   However, don't take the following comments as some bitter, ex-drug rep taking a shot at big corporate America!  It's just that I have the luxury of saying a few things that many of my friends inside the industry cannot. 

So here is an analogy to introduce my point about today's pharmaceutical companies. Hopefully, it will give you some insights from a former drug representative now making a case for drug therapy behind a pharmacy counter.  

I greatly appreciate a new idea, novel and pioneering in nature. This is the stuff you talk about at work on Monday mornings. On the flip side, too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing and loses its luster quickly!  To put it another way, I am not big on movie sequels or TV spinoffs.  "Me too" is another way of saying I am a pathetic "poser." Let's lose the CSI "Scranton!" idea. 

In many instances, a launch of a new drug from drug companies is not that much different.   In fact, the next time you pick up a prescription for a new drug therapy on that arthritic knee, it might be akin to renting Rocky IV.  The question that consumers should ask and the answer that drug companies must give is, "Yes, this new medication is novel and it will improve a patient's quality of live"  If this is the case and not some slick brand marketing, then certainly everybody wins.  Alas, physicians have a new weapon against disease, patients have hope from a new therapy, shareholders have a reason to celebrate, and last, but not least, drug representatives really do have "something new" to talk about.  Now, that's what I call value. 

Please, be a smart consumer with regards to the "Me too" phenomenon.  Last week, I shook my head in amazement when a lady came into the pharmacy and inquired whether her doctor had called in a new prescription, knowing nothing about her upcoming therapy, not to mention she wasn't all that familiar with any other medicines she was taking.  Ask yourself and the physician, "Is this a new therapy or am I being prescribed a commodity to capture market share at my expense?"  Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciate choice and if there are significant differences in a drug's efficacy and side effect profile in the same class, prescribe away!  This makes us good capitalists in search of optimal health care delivery.  However, the road less travelled for drug companies might be the best option.  Why don't they blaze a new trail with all that R&D (Research and Development) money instead of bringing to market the 20th NSAID (Non-Steroidal-Anti-Inflammatory Drug) that I mentioned above that you are about to take for that arthritic knee.  It might just put to rest that inner conflict every pharmaceutical representative carries along side those drug samples...take as directed, Blake