What's Da Buzz?

In the Philippines, your options are determined by your income. The same is true to a degree in the USA but since there is so much here such a view is considered being greedy. This is where many in this country do not understand the viewpoint of those from other countries. When you have a lot and it is considered normal, people get spoiled.

In the field I am currently working in, I am exposed to many things that happen in the pharmaceutical world. The statements about the USA is overmedicated is true. There also seems to be an attitude of a need for pharmaceutical drugs despite the minor detail the pharmaceutical industry has only really been around for 3% of recorded history. Obviously, there were other medical answers for the other 97% of recorded history. But due to marketing and lobbying, the obvious is censored as it would hurt the profit margins of the politicians on the take and the corps bottom line.

But in the Philippines and elsewhere, there isn’t that amount of money to be grabbed. Most are doing their best to make ends meet. Medication is used when you truly need it such as an antibiotic, cancer meds, anti-seizure medication and other life preserving medicines. Anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds are very uncommon as you do not have time to mope about your life. You are too busy living it. Additionally, not having money forces you to look to alternatives that have been proven to work. These alternatives are in the 97% category that has been used before. Of course, you need to keep your guard up for frauds but that is the responsibility of the individual not the government.

Here in the USA when you publish something truthful as an informative article, people will overreact because you are attacking their meds. Instead of focusing on correcting their government, they come out in force and get nasty about their medicine. Not only did they do it in this article, but I deal with this 70 times a day.

Someone’s pharmaceutical plan wants to save money and have people switch to generics. So that person will call us all upset that my company and his plan are trying to rip them off, kill them, make decisions as if we are doctors, and the standard batch of phone calls from hotheads. Some of the most aggressive or nasty callers are those who have to have their anti-anxiety pills or their acid reflux pills. If they weren’t so nasty and learned to be nice to people, the need for anxiety pills and pills for upset tummies would likely lessen by a lot.

By law, the generic versions of the drugs must be identical to the brand name drug. The companies that make the generics wait until the patent expires then act on it quickly. Generics are usually cheaper than brand name drugs. The co-pays for the generic drugs are usually cheaper than those for the brand names. So if someone’s plan wants to save themselves and their customers money, is that a bad thing? Heller, pay less for the same effect is common sense.

The article in the link describes the nasty side of the pharmaceutical industry as one business will attempt to undercut the other businesses by renewing patents with a minor change to a formula. I’ve dealt with it a lot. It seems like those leaving comments need to take a chill pill about their pills. It is just medicine, man.

Anah

photo credits: http://deepintro.typepad.com/

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