Now that we have a drug, let’s create a disease.

January 24, 2011 in Uncategorized

Here is a link to an excerpt from the book White Coat, Black Hat about how diseases are sometimes created to sell new drugs or rehabilitate old drugs.

Unfortunately, this occurs much more frequently than we might think.

here is an excerpt of the excerpt:

…People get diseases; scientists develop drugs to treat those diseases; and marketers sell the drugs by showing that the drugs work better than their competitors. Sometimes, however, this pattern works in reverse. Drug company scientists develop a drug with a range of physiological effects, none of which are terribly helpful, so the marketers must identify and promote a disease for the drug to treat. This might mean co-opting a rare disease whose borders can be expanded to encompass more patients, or redefining an unpleasant aspect of ordinary life as a medical pathology. Once a disease has achieved a critical degree of cultural legitimacy, there is no need to convince anyone that a drug is necessary. It will come to him as his own idea.”…

read the whole excerpt via Create a disease to market a drug

Better yet read the whole book White Coat, Black Hat