Do you have trust issues with your Doctor? Because we certainly have trust issues with your doctor! Day after day, we receive calls from patients who are so frustrated with their doctors not listening to them. Our patients want to trust their doctors and work with their doctor’s recommendations but they feel as though they are constantly being pushed into taking medications that aren’t working and have awful side effects. They’re tired of being treated like guinea pigs! They’re tired of feeling like just another statistic and with good reason: the pharmaceutical industry is lying to them and ignoring their autonomy.
Frankly, we at King Harvest are also tired. We’re tired of the mistrust between patients and their doctors and we’re also tired by the pharmaceutical industry’s overreach in general. We believe that it’s time to expose Big Pharma’s secrets so that our patients can know the truth and make well-informed healthcare decisions. So, in that spirit here are five things that the pharmaceutical industry does not want you to know:
1. Drug development is not nearly as expensive as they say it is.
The pharmaceutical industry is always exaggerating the cost of research and development as a justification for their insanely high prices! For example, they will say that it costs $2billion for the development of a new medication when the real cost is often one tenth that price, often in the $100-200 million price range.
2. Patients are double-paying for their medications.
Pharmaceutical companies are the ultimate government leeches: they use taxpayer-funded research from universities and university laboratories, which is where most of the new medicines are created. They receive tax credits for their research only to then privatize their results via patents. Then they turn around and charge exorbitant prices to the same government and taxpayers that funded the initial research. Sneaky!
3. They’re not as innovative as they claim to be.
Did you know that two thirds of all new pharmaceutical medications are no better than the current drugs on the market? It’s true…the pharmaceutical industry places a high priority on manufacturing what is known as “me-too” or “follow-on” drugs, which are basically tiny alterations to already existing formulations which legally can be marketed as a new medication. Shady!
4. They’re corporate bullies.
Big pharma is legendary for their oppressive litigious campaigns against lower-income countries’ pharmaceutical industries. We see this time and time again in countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Malaysia, and Thailand. These countries are often punished for attempting to place their citizens’ healthcare above pharma’s profits. These pharmaceutical conglomerates often use their wealth and political influence to create beneficial trade monopolies, often at the cost of their patients’ lives.
5. They don’t reinvest their profits.
The Pharmaceutical industry often claims that it is reinvesting its profits into research and development, but this is simply not true. The reality is that these corporations are investing into share buybacks which in turn boost their stock prices and overall sales.
King Harvest believes that medication and healthcare information should be available to everyone. We also believe that patients should be able to trust that their healthcare provider is looking out for their best interest and not simply looking to line their own pockets. By being honest and transparent with our patients, we work hard to establish trusting relationships with our patients and hope that someday the same can be said about the relationship between our patients and their doctors.
