How much is that cow in the window?

My eyes have been worse lately. So today I'm going to follow the time honored tradition of sticking my head in the sand... and focus on something else. As I am best distracted when outraged, I've decided to tell you all about this article I read the other day, regarding the impending expiration of Lipitor's patent: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45182184/ns/business-us_business/#.TrrGKXLZeuI. I felt a little bit like vomiting after reading it, so I suggest you sample the article for yourself with a mental barf-bag prepared. I didn't really know much about Lipitor prior to this, besides the fact that it's a cholesterol drug, but apparently Lipitor was a huge money-maker for it's developer (Pfizer). What's disturbing is the fact that this entire article reads kind of like a eulogy for some sort of mythological creature - which I guess in this case is a cash cow.

Rather than commenting on how “unleashing a wave of generics,” as they put it, might actually be a really good thing for all the people out there who have to pay for this medicine, the article only laments about the end of Lipitor's “fabled run,” and eagerly posits which new drugs could make as much money. Could it be Humira or Remicade? Drugs that are commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis? Or maybe it could be... an Alzheimer's drug! So many people are going to get Alzheimer's as the baby boomers age!

Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture?

It disturbs me enough that pharmaceutical companies view patient populations as just money-making potential, waiting to be tapped. But to see journalists, who make no money off of drug sales, doing it as well is just downright frightening. Has viewing the medical/pharmaceutical industry as a profit machine become so pervasive in our society that no one will blink twice at considering a diabetes drug for how much money it will make rather than for how many lives it will improve or save? I guess the answer is yes. Obviously the authors of this article would be considered “business journalists” but it's a little bit disturbing if you can just throw the word “business” into your work title and it becomes immediately justifiable for you not to care about other human beings.

As far as Pfizer is concerned, now that their patent is up, they have apparently cut a deal with a generics manufacturer to withhold the sales of the generic version of Lipitor in the US. Just so they can squeeze every last penny out of US patients. You can read about this here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-08/pfizer-ranbaxy-sued-by-pharmacies-alleging-lipitor-price-fixing.html. I feel like the reason why pharmaceuticals feel like they can get away with tricks like this is precisely because the attitude that they deserve to be making billions of dollars off of sick people is just accepted as the way things are. But it is not the way things should be.

So today's blog post is dedicated to your health. May you never need the next "blockbuster" drug that these pharmaceuticals are developing, for they will certainly ask you to pay dearly for it. And then you'll have the pleasure of reading articles, such as the first one, celebrating the huge profits made off of your suffering and hard-earned money.