OK, and I don't want anyone to think I am cold-hearted, I just can't get past this way of thinking. First, I should say that what you describe would not take place in Maine.
Let's take another situation. A family of four, dad is out of work and mother does her best with cleaning jobs (please don't find that sexist). The father goes to the local supermarket every week and purchases some Top Ramen, milk, Wonder Bread and Jif Peanutbutter. This is what they live on until he gets a job or they receive TANF and food stamps.
Now here are two ads for
Jif and
Wonder bread.Now based on your post where I am assuming that your message is that if drug companies didn't hand out $10.00 thumb drives, then insulin would be cheaper. I would contend that without their advertising, they would not be able to sell enough Viagra (unfortunately that is the medication we are dealing with, although I do use it for pulmonary hypertension). If you look at most industries, advertising is essential to continue with a product line. Certainly, a Toyota Camry would be less expensive if Toyota didn't have to pay for advertising, but without advertising Toyota would be forced to discontinue that product line. In fact, we don't have the numbers, but it is possible that the Camry is cheaper, BECAUSE Toyota is selling more of them due to advertising. My guess is they have people in their company that do just that. Determine where the price point of advertising vs. cost of car and sales.
I simply do not understand how we as doctors or anyone expect the drug companies to be able to sell their product without letting doctors know it is out there. I would not be prescribing Intuniv, the only long-acting selective alpha2A-adrenergic receptor agonist. That is the whole idea of advertising. Without it, the product doesn't exist. Now, that brings us to how do you advertise. Radio? Television, drug reps, etc. I don't watch much TV, and I doubt I would have looked into it that way. Radio isn't used that often. Whether I like drug reps or not, and the Intuniv rep is a good one, being introduced to Intuniv by a live person had my interest. Same as with the new ADHD suspension. At first, it was not covered by Mainecare, but since I used it more than any other physician due to how well it worked, we received samples, which I gave out. And, like in the old days with many drugs, they were the perfect starter kit.
As you may have already seen, I inserted two links to bread and peanut butter. One could make the argument that the ads (especially the Superbowl ad) raised the price of the two products making it less affordable to the family above? Does that mean, Jif and Wonderbread don't have the right to advertise? In fact, again, if they didn't, Jif and Wonderbread would cease to exist. But, given the ads are on TV, it isn't so transparent. What if the two companies had Jif reps and Wonderbread reps that stood outside giving "free" sandwiches to shoppers? Would there be an article in the newspaper stating, "Local family can't afford peanut butter sandwiches due to food reps giving away their product. This surely must increase the prices of the two products inside." And, Jif's actions were even more costly as they gave out brochures of studies showing that kids preferred Jif over Skippy and Peterpan 3 to 1 and that it had lower cholesterol. And, Wonderbread hands out brochures touting their new Wonderbread + with white bread and whole grain combination.
I don't know. I will listen to the rebuttals, and I am not that smart about this stuff, so I will get reamed over this, but at least I will learn.
Disclaimer: The author is not affiliated or associated with either Jif or Wonderbread. In fact, he prefers Skippy brand peanut butter.
