Healthcare Industry Spends $30 Billion a Year Pushing Its Wares, from Drugs to Stem Cell Treatment
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Community Community According to Qatar Natural a study poor History P4sleep quality P16 Group may signal the holds talk on risk of Alzheimer’s reclamation disease in of Al Karaana older adults. Lagoons. Friday, January 11, 2019 Jumada I 5, 1440 AH Doha today 180 - 230 COVER Wealth is health! STORY Healthcare industry spends $30 billion a year pushing its wares, from drugs to stem cell treatment. P2-3 CUISINE SHOWBIZ Moong dal halwa, an Proud to have directed auspicious dessert. Petta: Karthik Subbaraj. Page 6 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Friday, January 11, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Health at a price! Consumer advocates say that taxpayers pay the real price, as seductive ads persuade doctors and patients alike to PRAYER TIME order pricey tests and brand-name pills, writes Liz Szabo Fajr 5.00am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.21am Zuhr (noon) 11.42am Asr (afternoon) 2.52pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.04pm Isha (night) 6.34pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 SALES PITCH: Sophisticated campaigns make people worry about diseases they don’t have and ask for drugs or exams they don’t Qatar Airways 40253374 need. Marketing drives ote Unquo more testing. Qu te “Better a It drives more diamond with a fl aw treatments. It’s than a pebble without.” a big part of why healthcare is — Confucius so expensive, because it’s the fancy, high-tech stuff things that get marketed Community Editor Kamran Rehmat e-mail: [email protected] ‘ — Steven Woloshin, Telephone: 44466405 healthcare specialist Fax: 44350474 ’ Friday, January 11, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY In recent months, the FDA has issued warnings to clinics marketing unapproved stem cell therapies. Medical advertising today goes beyond TV and radio commercials. Some online campaigns encourage patients to diagnose themselves oping to earn its share “Marketing is built into the cost including those that allow people to treat disease. Many patients The website for Restasis, which of the $3.5 trillion of care.” to learn their ancestry or disease have no idea that these stem cell treats dry eyes, prompts patients healthcare market, High costs ultimately aff ect risk — also bombard the public therapies are unapproved, said to take a quiz to learn if they the medical industry everyone, because they prompt with advertising. The number Angie Botto-van Bemden, director need the prescription eye drops, is pouring more insurance plans to raise premiums, of ads for genetic testing grew of osteoarthritis programmes at said Woloshin, who co-wrote a Hmoney than ever into advertising said Diana Zuckerman, president from 14,100 in 1997 to 255,300 in the Arthritis Foundation. February study with Schwartz its products — from high-priced of the National Center for Health 2016, at a cost that year of $82.6 Stem cell clinics have boosted on the drug’s marketing strategy. prescriptions to do-it-yourself Research, a nonprofi t that million, according to the study. their marketing from $900,000 The Restasis website also allows genetic tests and unapproved stem provides medical information to AncestryDNA spends more than in 2012 to $11.3 million in 2016, patients to “fi nd an eye doctor near cell treatments. consumers. And taxpayers foot the any other company of its kind, according to the study. you.” Spending on healthcare bill for publicly funded insurance devoting $38 million to marketing In recent months, the FDA Many of the doctors included marketing doubled from 1997 programmes, such as Medicare. in 2016 alone. has issued warnings to clinics in the Restasis directory have to 2016, soaring to at least $30 “These ads can be amazingly Some companies are touting marketing unapproved stem cell taken gifts from its manufacturer, billion a year, according to a study persuasive, and they can exploit stem cell treatments that therapies. Twelve patients have Allergan, Woloshin said. The published in JAMA. desperate patients and family haven’t been approved by federal been hospitalised for serious doctor directory includes seven of “Marketing drives more members,” said Zuckerman, who regulators. The Food and Drug infections after receiving stem cell the top 10 physicians paid by the testing. It drives more was not involved in the new study. Administration has approved injections, according to the Centers company, his study says. treatments. It’s a big part of Drug companies spend the bulk stem cell therapy for only a few for Disease Control and Prevention. In a statement, Allergan why healthcare is so expensive, of their money trying to infl uence specifi c uses — such as bone Medical advertising today goes spokeswoman Amy Rose said because it’s the fancy, high- doctors, showering them with free marrow transplants for people beyond TV and radio commercials. the company uses direct-to- tech stuff things that get food, drinks and speaking fees, as with leukaemia. But hundreds Some online campaigns encourage consumer advertising “to support marketed,” said Steven Woloshin, well as paying for them to travel of clinics claim to use these cells patients to diagnose themselves, responsible disease awareness co-director of the Center for to conferences, according to the taken from umbilical cord blood Woloshin said. eff orts.” The ads “do not displace Medicine and Media at The study. the patient-physician relationship, Dartmouth Institute for Health Yet marketers also increasingly but enhance them, helping Policy and Clinical Practice. His target consumers, said Woloshin, Whenever to create well-informed and study captured only a portion who wrote the study with his wife empowered consumer and patient of the many ways that drug and longtime research partner, pharma or a communities.” companies, hospitals and labs Dartmouth’s Dr Lisa Schwartz, Drug sites don’t just lead promote themselves. who died of cancer in November. hospital spends patients to doctors. They also Advertising doesn’t just The biggest increase in medical money on provide scripts for suggested persuade people to pick one brand marketing over the past 20 years conversations. For example, the over another, said Woloshin. was in “direct-to-consumer” advertising, website for Viagra, which treats Sophisticated campaigns make advertising, including the TV erectile dysfunction, provides people worry about diseases they commercials that exhort viewers we the patients specifi c questions for patients to don’t have and ask for drugs or to “ask your doctor” about a ask. exams they don’t need. particular drug. Spending on such pay for it — The website for Addyi, often Consumer advocates say that ads jumped from $2.1 billion in through higher called the “female Viagra,” goes taxpayers pay the real price, as 1997 to nearly $10 billion in 2016, even further. Patients who answer seductive ads persuade doctors according to the study. prices for drugs a number of medical questions and patients alike to order pricey A spokeswoman for the online are off ered a 10- to tests and brand-name pills. pharmaceutical industry and hospital 15-minute phone consultation “Whenever pharma or a hospital group, PhRMA, said that its ads about the drug for $49. Patients spends money on advertising, we provide “scientifi cally accurate services who don’t immediately book an the patients pay for it — through information to patients.” These ads — Shannon appointment receive an e-mail higher prices for drugs and “increase awareness of the benefi ts reminder a few minutes later. hospital services,” said Shannon and risks of new medicines and Brownlee, “This is more evidence,” Brownlee, senior vice president of encourage appropriate use of Brownlee said, “that drug the Lown Institute, a Brookline, medicines,” said Holly Campbell, advocacy companies are not run by Massachusetts, nonprofi t that of PhRMA. dummies.” advocates for aff ordable care. The makers of genetic tests — specialist — Kaiser Health News 4 GULF TIMES Friday, January 11, 2019 COMMUNITY BODY & MIND HANDY MARKER: The challenge is finding people on track to develop Alzheimer’s before brain changes and undermine their ability to think clearly. For that, sleep may be a handy marker. Poor sleep may predict Alzheimer’s risk in elderly oor sleep quality less slow-wave sleep, deep sleep Moreover, the findings, sleep and more tau protein in loss and confusion appear, may signal the risk of needed to consolidate memories published in the journal Science people who were either cognitively amyloid beta protein begins to Alzheimer’s disease in and wake up feeling refreshed, Translational Medicine, showed normal or very mildly impaired, collect into plaques in the brain. older adults, a study have higher levels of tau, a toxic that it was not the total amount meaning that reduced slow-wave Tangles of tau appear later, suggests. brain protein. of sleep that was linked to tau, activity may be a marker for the followed by decline of key brain PPeople with Alzheimer’s tend Tau has also been linked to but the slow-wave sleep, which transition between normal and areas. Only then do people start to wake up tired and their nights brain damage and cognitive reflects quality of sleep. impaired,” Lucey added. showing unmistakable signs of become even less refreshing as decline. “Measuring how people The people with increased tau For the study, the team studied cognitive decline.