Drug companies redefine illness: speaker
By Erin Hale, The McGill Daily (McGill University)
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: News
MONTREAL (CUP) -- Why does the United States consume 43 per cent of the volume of world pharmaceuticals, while all of Africa consumes only one per cent?
According to Jean-Claude St-Onge, who spoke at Concordia on Feb 12 and is the author of The Other Side of the Pill: The Hidden Face of the Pharmaceutical Industry, North America's pharmaceutical industry works constantly to "redefine the frontiers of health and sickness," encouraging excessive use of medications.
The pervasion of drugs in our society is the well-crafted work of the pharmaceutical industry and can be traced back to the 1970s, St-Onge said.
"1976 was year the market took precedence over science. H. Gadsen, Merck's CEO, told Fortune his dream was to become like Wrigley - not just to sell to the sick, but to the healthy."
Between 1975 and 2006, the price of pharmaceuticals in Canada increased by a factor of 23 per cent. That's twice as fast as the cost for eye treatment and dentistry and three times faster than hospital treatments.
Over the past few decades, pharmaceutical companies have worked relentlessly to manufacture new customers and new products to replace those whose patents have lapsed. According to the Center for Public Integrity, pharmaceutical companies spent twice as much on marketing as they did on research and development.
St-Onge attributed this first to what he called the "medicalization of normal events" - marketing tactics that have convinced the public that "normal processes," such as hypertension, cholesterol and menopause, are in fact "illnesses" that require serious treatment.
The most dramatic transformation has been in the way North American society considers mental illness, he said.
Since the 1970s the number of mental illnesses has increased from 26 to 395. But St-Onge said that some of theses "diseases," like shyness and anxiety, are simply part of the human condition.
But as a result, between 1998 and 2002, the number of antidepressants taken by six to 12 year-olds increased by 142 per cent.
According to Jean-Claude St-Onge, who spoke at Concordia on Feb 12 and is the author of The Other Side of the Pill: The Hidden Face of the Pharmaceutical Industry, North America's pharmaceutical industry works constantly to "redefine the frontiers of health and sickness," encouraging excessive use of medications.
The pervasion of drugs in our society is the well-crafted work of the pharmaceutical industry and can be traced back to the 1970s, St-Onge said.
"1976 was year the market took precedence over science. H. Gadsen, Merck's CEO, told Fortune his dream was to become like Wrigley - not just to sell to the sick, but to the healthy."
Between 1975 and 2006, the price of pharmaceuticals in Canada increased by a factor of 23 per cent. That's twice as fast as the cost for eye treatment and dentistry and three times faster than hospital treatments.
Over the past few decades, pharmaceutical companies have worked relentlessly to manufacture new customers and new products to replace those whose patents have lapsed. According to the Center for Public Integrity, pharmaceutical companies spent twice as much on marketing as they did on research and development.
St-Onge attributed this first to what he called the "medicalization of normal events" - marketing tactics that have convinced the public that "normal processes," such as hypertension, cholesterol and menopause, are in fact "illnesses" that require serious treatment.
The most dramatic transformation has been in the way North American society considers mental illness, he said.
Since the 1970s the number of mental illnesses has increased from 26 to 395. But St-Onge said that some of theses "diseases," like shyness and anxiety, are simply part of the human condition.
But as a result, between 1998 and 2002, the number of antidepressants taken by six to 12 year-olds increased by 142 per cent.
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