Is the pharmacy proffession (pharmacists themselves not the pharmacologists) corrupt?

Question

I know the pharmaceutical industry is corrupt, and although its entirely wrong, disgusting and needs to be stopped; it is first and foremost a business and the initial goal of a business is to gain profit; not help people. So under those terms they can technically do whatever they want with their resources, which totally sucks for the sick 8 year old with leukemia, who cant get meds because pharmaceuatical companies monopolize and overprice the very thing that could save hundreds of lives..

Sorry for the rant, im just a high school sophmore, and for the longest time have wanted to be a pharmacist. but after some research on the pharmaceutical industry...i just dont know anymore. Are the people who distribute the drugs themeselves corrupt..is this career field tainted in anyway???

and if so is there away for a pharmacists to not be corrupt...i dont know im just very confused.

Answer 1

I suspect most pharmacists simply think they are helping people, as naive as that is.

The corruption that is rampant in the industry happens (generally) at higher levels than the guy behind the counter at Walgreens.

Kudos to you for seeing the truth behind the pharmaceutical industry.  There's no question that some good has obviously come out of it, but what drives the industry is treating symptoms for the life of the patient; not curing anything, and often creating fictitious diseases to describe symptoms that are either related to poor lifestyle or are actually side affects of other pharmaceuticals.

The training and information that pharmacists possess is not corrupt, simply the motivations behind the medical industry.  You could go to work for a company like Pharmaca or Elephant Pharmacy, which combine traditional pharmaceuticals with homeopathics, nutrition and natural remedies.  Kind of the best of both worlds, and a much higher level of integrity than is normally found.

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To my naive friend US_DR_JD who answered below:

I'm not anti-Capitalism, but I hate the pharmaceutical industry which promotes itself as creating a better quality of life for people, but in reality over-medicate people, create fictitious diseases to meet a host of symptoms (which are often simply the side affects of other drugs or simply poor lifestyle choices), and exist simply to make BILLIONS of dollars at our expense.

If you think they are in the business of actually curing disease, you are sadly mistaken. They exist to treat symptoms, often for the lifespan of the patient. They are a big part of why our health-care system is so costly and screwed up.

Ask yourself why the industry hires roughly 100,000 lobbyists for ever 120,000 doctors in the US. That's almost a 1 to 1 ratio of guys (and women) who simply buy doctors perks and trips and give out boatloads of samples and inundate their offices with literature, all designed to sway the ignorant public who think doctors are near god-like.

Drug companies spend $5 billion annually sending representatives to physician offices.

I am not anti-Western Medicine. I am just against the motives that are common in the industry. There is certainly a lot of benefit the industry has brought our society, but greed and profits should never exceed the Hippocratic Oath. Unfortunately it has, and only by calling their practices into question, and not blindly accepting everything doctors tells us can we bring balance back to the industry.

Answer 2

I understand that you are young and it is good for you to have a concern for the people in need of medications.  However, when looking into the issue of the cost of medications you must consider the reasons for those costs. Estimates about the cost of reseraching, testing,developing a new drug vary widely, from a low of $800 million to nearly $2 billion per drug, then come the production and marketing and transportation costs.. Even the high end of those estimates may soon be considered a bargain. Recently, Pfizer announced that it is investing $800 million just for a set of Phase III trials for a single drug.

When a drug is going throuh the required FDA testing, it finally is tested on human subjects.  Those human subjects are normally paid for their time, all medical costs, and transportation to and from the facility.

Then it is possible that some people might have adverse reactions to the medications (these are normal for all treatments) but in the US the pharmacuetical company then is subject to the legal fees for often frivolous litigation by lawyers hoping the corporations will settle to save money on legal fees.

Also understand that most of the pharmacuetical companies have assistance programs, and provide free medications to qualified patients without insurance coverage.  I have helped hunderds of patients get their medications from these programs.  I have also had pharmacuetical reperesentatives make a drive across town with a months samples for a patient when they desperately needed a medication and had no money to obtain the needed drugs.

I do sympathize with the 8 year old.  I have a condition which requires a treatment which is not covered by my insurance.  It cost over $18,000 per month, and if I do not get the treatment I will lose all feeling and control of my body and eventually die.  I understand that it takes around 13,200 people providing plasma to make the treatment, and that all of those people are paid donors.  That doesn't make it any easier to pay $234,000 a year for the therapy.

The government allows the pharmacuetical industry a 7 year patent before a medication can be made by other companies as a generic so they can make a profit on their investment.  After all, as you said, it is a business.  Then again, how many physicians, nurses or even ministers are willing to work without being paid for their services.  There are very few people who are financially in a situation where they can totally volunteer all of their services, the rest of us need to make a profit to pay our bills, and maybe buy an X-Box 360 for our teen sons.