|
Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs | 
| Author: Melody Petersen
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $14.65
You Save: $11.35 (44%)
New (35) Used (3) from $12.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 42614
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0374228272
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.4761510973
EAN: 9780374228279
ASIN: 0374228272
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Absolutely Brand New & In Stock. 100% 30-Day Money Back. Direct from our warehouse. Ships by USPS. 1+ million customers served-In business since 1986. Happy Customers is Our #1 Goal. Toll Free Support
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In the last thirty years, the big pharmaceutical companies have transformed themselves into marketing machines selling dangerous medicines as if they were Coca-Cola or Cadillacs. They pitch drugs with video games and soft cuddly toys for children; promote them in churches and subways, at NASCAR races and state fairs. They’ve become experts at promoting fear of disease, just so they can sell us hope. No question: drugs can save lives. But the relentless marketing that has enriched corporate executives and sent stock prices soaring has come with a dark side. Prescription pills taken as directed by physicians are estimated to kill one American every five minutes. And that figure doesn’t reflect the damage done as the overmedicated take to the roads. Our Daily Meds connects the dots for the first time to show how corporate salesmanship has triumphed over science inside the biggest pharmaceutical companies and, in turn, how this promotion driven industry has taken over the practice of medicine and is changing American life. It is an ageless story of the battle between good and evil, with potentially life-changing consequences for everyone, not just the 65 percent of Americans who unscrew a prescription cap every day. An industry with the promise to help so many is now leaving a legacy of needless harm.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A fascinating read May 5, 2008
Great writing style making it a hard book to put down. Every medical provider should read this book. As a provider for 15 years I have seen the tactics, I have watched drugs come in as samples and being promoted as some the best thing next to sliced cheese. I went to the dinners where "scientific information" was presented and thought that I wasn't smart enough to understand exactly why the drug was better(frequently, these same drugs were pulled from market). I have seen meds like neurontin being added to my patient med lists for a variety of reasons. Hmm I would think, I just don't read enough. Well, I will continue my wait and see attitude about new drugs. Something that sounds too good to be true....probably is.
 Good, But Better Reported Already! April 26, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Petersen does a good job of reporting drug company machinations. These include their preference for creating "Me Too" drugs that often are not as effective as those already on the market, lobbying and manipulations to extend patent protection and block cheaper versions made in other nations, extensive TV marketing to patients, putting physicians on their payroll to endorse products, broadening markets (eg. getting frequent "goers" to use a drug developed for those with incontinence) - instead of developing more effective drugs for rampant diseases in underdeveloped areas of the world and serious, less prevalent maladies in the U.S.
The problem with "Our Daily Meds," however, is that it is a story already much better and more credibly told by others - particularly Marcia Angell's "The Truth About Drug Companies," and especially John Abramson's "Overdosed America."
Our Daily Meds April 24, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This Book should be read by all people who take medications as a daily routine. It tells how people are prescribed the drugs "de jour" for little or no real reason and how these drugs can be extremely harmful particularly when taken with other drugs. I have read most of this in various publications but in this book it is all brought together. This book shows that the pharmautical industry is primarily profit motivated and curing a person is very secondary.
 Excesses in the past April 10, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Did certain companies go to extremes? Yes, but not all did. There is a lot of good expose' type stuff in this book. The biggest problem is that almost all of the information comes from the 90's and contains virtually nothing since 2002. That is six years ago. Since then, the FDA has taken a lot of step to clean up the excesses. No mention of this or the good that drugs do to help keep millions alive and well today.
There is an alternative to the "the sky is falling" crowd - stop taking the medications and see how you feel in a month (if you're still alive). The taking of medication is strictly voluntary. Don't blame others.
Where are all the acolades (and reviews) for this brilliant book? April 7, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
After just finishing this book - as good a piece of investigative journalism as they come - I'm as shocked by the lack of reviews here as I am by seeing the ugly revelation of the "man behind the curtains" true face of Big Pharma.
Petersen has chosen an enormous subject, the debased fall and ugly spectacle of medical scientists and researchers, the entire pharmaceutical industry, and yes, most if not all of our physicians failing in their duties to their patients in order to grab another hundred bucks or so in bribes. I was shocked, angry, enraged and finally repelled by what I read, in that order, but was also grateful to Petersen's compulsively easy-to-read style that allowed me to truly understand what I was reading.
Between this expose, and Gary Taubes' clear and concise outline (in Good Calories, Bad Calories) of how the public has been mislead and lied to about cholesterol, our diets, heart disease and statins - I'm ready to throw 'the book' at the entire complex, hold Senate Hearings, throw people in jail, and start medicine from scratch. Which might not be such a bad idea, because after reading this book I encourage everyone to begin their next annual physical with the words: "And whose payroll are *you* on?"
I recommend this book, and Taubes' book, as REQUIRED READING for anyone who is breathing at the moment - and would like to continue doing so.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
