Saturday, February 26, 2005

New Poll Shows Public's Distrust of Pharmaceutical Companies

Of related interest is a recent poll reported by the Washington Post show that many people now mistrust the pharmaceutical industry. 70% said drug companies put profits ahead of developing new drugs, and 40% had no trust in direct to consumer advertising.
The latter figure is an important counterpoint to those who argue that pharmaceutical companies are so omniscient that their marketing efforts unfailingly manipulate doctors and patients (as some did back on the hcrenewal email list some time ago). In fact, these data, if accurate, suggest that direct to consumer advertising is beginning to backfire.
So patients are beginning to realize how they are caught in cross-fires amongst large and powerful organizations. Pharmaceutical companies are only one type of such organization.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This acknowledgment of the public's perception of the industry is rather accurate. Yet now what needs to occur is action for a transformation to cccur for the benefit of public health. Direction for the public on this matter would accelerate the catalyst necessary for the health care system correction.