Do pharmaceutical companies really care about us?

It’s crazy to believe that

people you trust, don’t care for you one bit. Big Pharma, a group of
pharmaceutical companies connected with the government gets large amounts
of money from the people of the world; this conspiracy that people believe
can be proven factual through research over industry-funded vs. government-
funded pharmaceuticals and the way the government finds a way to pay less
and receive more money.
It’s not easy to clearly describe what big pharma is. Big pharma means big
multinational pharmaceutical companies or big drug companies. But there are
many different definitions to what big pharma really is. “How many firms are
included in the big pharma group, and what parameters …show more
content…
The conspiracy of big pharma vaccine profits is a very interesting myth in the
ant vaccination world. Vaccine deniers give there long speech opinions all
over the internet about this subject. One of the vexed statements was “Maybe
vex companies see vaccines as more of an investment? Break mostly even on
what the vexes cost to make and sell, but make a bank load of money on
treating all the chronic problems they cause” (Fullerton). It’s sad, but true.
Vaccines are highly profitable. “IMS, the top pharmaceutical market analysis
firm, estimates the 2010 revenues for pharmaceuticals to be over US $955
billion, and will exceed US $1 trillion dollars by 2013” (Fullerton). And big
pharma also has an income of US $300 billion in medical devices in 2012,
and almost $320 billion in 2013. That means that the total profit that big
pharma will make from devices and pharmaceuticals is almost $1.32 trillion.
And where do they get all that money from? Us. Vaccine profits have a tiny
percentage of big pharma revenues, but they’re still a lot. An estimation for
2013 vaccine revenues all around the world is about 24 billion. Vaccines only
make up about 1.82 of the total profit that big pharma expects. And a lot of
new companies are coming into the vaccine market only because the market
growth is continuing to get higher and higher

Big pharma’ refers to global pharmaceutical and biomedicine

companies that lobby governments, media and other entities to
expand their influence. In spite of being responsible for the
modern innovations in medical devices and drugs, progress for
research and development for new drugs or treatments is
painstakingly slow. Like software updates or patches, the
development for treatment has seen incremental therapeutics,
such as small changes to existing formulations but rarely does the
public see any ground breaking discovery and even rarer still are
cures which are a small step away to being considered as unicorns.
There is a perverse notion that pharmaceutical companies are
deliberately hiding cures from the public and focusing their
research

Despite the vast number of people affected by these diseases,

research and development (R&D) for vaccines for these diseases
have been minimal. These diseases that are rampant in
undeveloped nations, remain uncharted territory because its
citizens are unable to pay for treatment, and as a result, it is
considered unprofitable. Generally, it is 13 times more likely for a
drug to be developed for treating disorders to the central nervous
system, diabetes and cancer which are prevalent in developed
nations over neglected diseases that kill millions in third world
countries (Trouiller, Olliaro, Torreele, Obrinski, Laing and Ford 2188).
An excerpt from the World Health Organization (pars. 4) states:
A similar conflict of interests exists in the area of drug research
and development particularly in the area of neglected diseases. The
private sector dominates R&D, spending millions of dollars each
year developing new drugs for the mass market. The profit
imperative ensures that the drugs chosen for development are
those most likely to provide a high return on the company’s
investment. As a result, drugs for use in the industrialized world
are prioritized over ones for use in the South, where many patients
would be unable to pay for

According to Forbes, in 2015, the health technology sector, which

includes pharmaceutical research reported an average 21% net profit
which takes the top spot as the most profitable industry in the US.
The vast majority of the health technology sector, including the
twenty largest pharmaceutical companies are for-profit
organizations. Critics of the big pharma point to monopolistic
pricing and high profits. The belief is that pharmaceutical
companies are hoarding money instead of researching. On the
contrary, R&D costs have increased at an annual rate of 7.4% above
inflation from 1980 to 2005 (Grabowski 460) and through their
research they have found that 25% of each million dollar change in
cash flow is directed towards increased drug expenditures.
(Grabowski 462). From 1962-1996, the growth rate of deflated gross
margins was 4.23%, lower than the 7.51% growth rate found for
R&D (Scherer The Link Between 217). In fact, the opposite is true
since companies have a vested interested to increase their research
and development expenditures as it is also their source of income.
They must innovate and develop new treatments and/or cures in
order to remain

In recent news Turing Pharmaceuticals has been on the news for raising the
price on their medicine at skyrocketing costs. One in particular, is a
medicine known as Daraprim which cost only $13.50 per tablet, saw an
increased on its cost overnight by $736.50 dollars per tablet after being
bought by Turing Pharmaceuticals. Daraprim is used in curing a parasitic
infection that can be life threatening if left untreated.Turing Pharmaceuticals
has obtain other older medicines and increased their costs to a ridiculous
price.This goes to show that human life in the United States is a
business.The American people can barely afford full healthcare coverage as
it is. Acquiring medical treatment to live should not be a luxury but a right.

The effects of such outcome is hurting how hospitals are securing one if not
all on the list of medications Turing and other pharmaceutical companies
have increased prices on. Forcing them to use other methods and
medications that are not as efficient. The government has no regulation
when it comes to how much a pharmaceutical company charges for their
medications. While some of the patents have expired on some of these
medications. Turing is doing everything in their power for other
pharmaceutical companies to not come across the medications and duplicate

The real cost of all of this the life of countless Americans who depend on
medications like Turing to live a healthy life. We are in America for crying
out loud, people of toxoplasmosis should not be occurring in the US. That
tells the world the we don 't value human life, that Americans are solely into
greed. Accomplishing it at whatever price possible. Whether it 's human life,
it doesn’t matter. Turing defense is nothing but an excuse for covering up
the fact that the CEO needed money to pay off disgruntled investors.
Although he denies it, what other reason would he have raised the price
Daraprim for? To fund the research of new medication? So he can sell it to
the American public for even more money than Daraprim. His defense is
invalid, due to the fact if he capable of selling a 62 year drug at a 5000%
price increase. What makes us believe he won 't sell a new medicine for
double that price. It 's all about money for these individuals. Human life has
more profit than any other industry. The United States Government needs to
regulate the Pharmaceutical companies today, failure to do, will be the result
of decline in human life. Turing lacks moral ethics, consumed only by
greed. Just like many companies who fall into these scandals. Make profit at
any cost, even human life if

. As of 2014, Global Pharma sales had reached over a trillion dollars, and
they are continuing to climb every year. With the advent of electronic
medical records, the era of data driven marketing by Big Pharma has come
under several ethical issues. With patient’s data being readily available for
purchase by Pharmaceutical companies, their drug reps can pinpoint which
doctors to approach, and which drugs they should approach them with. Drug
reps generally only approach doctors that write a large amount of
prescriptions, and for good reason. A single doctor could literally add 100-
200k in sales for a Pharmaceutic company through prescribing their drugs.
They will use terms like, “Thought Leaders”, or “Educators” and pay the
doctors to lecture

The main goal of any public company is to make money and be profitable.
Because of this, the drug reps will push their companies patented drugs over
competitor, and generic drugs no matter the cost increase or ineffectiveness
of those drugs. With the influence of prescription data, and paid speaking
requests, drug reps can literally manipulate a doctor into prescribing drugs
that aren’t even needed by patients, and in some cases, can do more harm
than good. One of worst aspect of this manipulation, is this marketing
ammunition is acquired through private interactions between doctors and
patients, without the patients even realizing it. This not only defies doctor-
patient confidentiality; it makes a complete mockery of it. Big Pharma
spends billions of dollars on marketing directly to physicians, and will
continue this practice as long as it’s

When people go to their doctor, they expect their interactions with medical
professionals are confidential. One of the more unethical issues that arise
from this behavior is the AMA, the organization that makes the rules, is also
the one that sells off the information. If doctors fill out No Contact and No
Release Forms, their patient’s information will be protected from marketing
purposes, but the doctors will also stop receiving health hazard warnings,
and drug recall notices. Also, what happens if there is a data breach, and
millions of people’s medical records are released. The practice of data
mining needs to be limited to educational, and health purposes only. Not
only are there multiple unethical concerns, it could also be damaging to
millions of

Big pharmaceutical and insurance companies have played a

central role in the pandemic, racing to find a scientific
solution to the nightmare virus and covering associated costs,
like Covid-19 testing. But the pandemic has also been good
for many healthcare businesses.

Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical and consumer goods

giant, developed the third vaccine authorized for use in the
U.S. It ranks No. 1 among healthcare companies and No. 34
overall on the 2021 Global 2000 list. The company’s stock has
climbed steadily over the last six months, despite a 10-day
pause in its U.S. vaccine rollout in April due to reports of rare
blood clots associated with the vaccine. After two committee
hearings, the Food and Drug Administration reaffirmed the
decision to make the J&J vaccine available for anyone over
the age of 18 in the U.S. J&J has promised not to turn a profit
from its single-shot vaccine amid the pandemic, but its
pharmaceutical business, consumer unit and medical device
group all performed well over the last year. J&J’s revenue
increased 6% to $82.6 billion in 2020.

The financial impact of producing a Covid-19 vaccine has at

times been complicated. Pfizer, which developed the first
Covid-19 vaccine authorized in the U.S. in partnership with
German company BioNTech, lands at No. 3 on the list. In
an earnings report released in May, Pfizer said that its
vaccine brought in $3.5 billion in global revenue in the first
three months of the year. But that has not helped Pfizer’s
stock, which is trading at the same level as it did two years
ago. Sanofi’s Covid-19 vaccine is still in development, but that
didn’t stop the company from rising 45 slots on the global list
to No. 7.

Beyond healthcare and pharma companies, large insurers in

the U.S. also emerged from the pandemic as winners. While
profits initially dipped as patients stayed at home under
various shelter-in-place restrictions, by the end of the year
they bounced back. “Share declines in elective care during the
pandemic have reduced health care expenditures and
contributed to earnings that are twice as large as those earned
last year,” one paper found.

UnitedHealth Group is America's largest insurer—and No. 21

overall—followed by Cigna, at No. 53 overall. Cigna saw costs
rise in the fourth quarter of 2020 when people started
seeking treatment that they delayed at the beginning of the
pandemic. In the short term, “restrictions have meant that
elective procedures and consultations have been greatly
curtailed and subsequently claim volumes have reduced,”
according to a Deloitte report. But overall, the company did
well: its profits increased 67% from $5.1 billion in 2019 to
$8.5 billion in 2020.

What will 2021 bring for the healthcare industry? Experts at

the Commonwealth Fund think that the movement to value-
based care in the insurance industry will continue to
accelerate. Meanwhile, pharma companies will watch to see
which Covid-19 vaccines are granted full FDA approval in the
coming months. “Biopharma innovation has progressed at an
astonishing rate in 2020,” McKinsey analysts wrote in a
recent blog post. “The lessons that companies learn and act
upon from this extraordinary year may well determine their
success for years to come.”

The term ‘Big Pharma’ is a terminology used to refer to the

pharmaceutical industry. The name relates to people’s strong belief
that it has played an active role in the ever increasing complicity and
costs of health care. There is a crisis in the health care sector and it is
believed that the Pharmaceutical Companies have abandoned
science and resorted to salesmanship. No reasonable progress is
currently being made in the industry due to the negative perception
created by unscrupulous marketing strategies being employed
(Archie 2009). Doctors should prescribe drugs to patients but are
never expected to do marketing and advertising of their products
and services. The other fact in the case study is that unethical
business practices such as Pfizer’s off-label marketing practices and
undue influence to medicines that should be prescribed by doctors
to patient, normally lead to a likely increase in the cost of medical
services due to the unfair and unleveled competition. The assumption
among most people, which is not the truth, is that all pharmaceutical
companies engage in dubious marketing tactics. The other
assumption is that the Big Pharma companies sell unethical drugs.
However, the truth is that the company sells ethical drugs even
though the marketing strategies employed by the company are of
questionable standards.

Major Overriding Issues

There are a number of problems in the case study. One of the
overriding issues is that Pfizer Company illegally did the marketing of
Neurontin anti-seizer drug. The fact that pharmaceutical industry has
decided to lay a lot of emphasis in the marketing of pills and other
related drugs rather than developing new crucial ones is an issue of
concern too. Drugs firms have also been accused of marketing drugs
for purposes that have not been prescribed by the renowned drug
and food administration department. Accusations of off-labeling
illegal marketing policies and other related marketing wrongs have
also emerged as a major problem in the industry. This is a very
serious problem which has compromised the integrity and ethical
standards of doctors and the entire pharmaceutical industry.

Sub-issues And Related Issues

The ‘Big Pharma’ companies have been accused of participating in
unethical business practices. Medical students have been hired to
companies even before they graduate from their medical schools.
This is a likely act of poaching talented skills in the market without
following the right recruitment process and laid down procedures
and policies in the industry. Furthermore, methods such as offering
doctors underserved holiday packages, expensive gifts and other
kickbacks, have been used to compromise the integrity of the
industry as doctors who are given these favours are expected to
recommend the specific company’s drugs thus boosting the
performance of the company’s in the competition. The costs of drugs
have continued to skyrocket due to lack of control of the market
practices.

Analysis And Evaluation

Medical practitioners such as doctors, pharmaceuticals, governments
and other law enforcement agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and
the entire public that seek medical services are the major
stakeholders in the industry. The government’s stake in the case is its
responsibility and duty to ensure that their subject receive the right
medical services they deserve. People have a right to a healthy life
and proper medical services. The government also benefit through
the taxes paid by other stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry.

The doctors’ stake in the industry is based on the fact that for them
to grow in their career and attain self fulfillment, they have to ensure
that the sick people get proper medical care. Their salaries and
duration of being employed would also be determined to a greater
extent by the standards they maintain in the market. Expensive
medical serviced would lead to a decline in customers due to very
costly services hence low income. The pharmaceutical industry,
research institutes and shareholders in the company have an interest
of maximizing profits and making the highest gains possible in their
various investments made in the industry. Unscrupulous and corrupt
means being employed by the pharmaceutical companies and some
medical practitioners compromises the integrity and ethical
standards of the industry. It also leads to decline in the performance
of most pharmaceuticals organizations.

CSR Analysis
Pfizer Company has the responsibility of ensuring that it regulates the
costs of medical services and products under its line of operation.
Good pricing would also make more people to receive better
healthcare services since they would be in a position to afford the
prescribed drugs. It also has the ethical responsibility of using ethical
marketing tactics that would benefit both the company and the
community of persons who uses its products. Legally, the company
must ensure that it follows the due marketing process, price
regulation standards, marketing policies hence fully adhering to the
rule of law. Such efforts would lead to fair competition in the
marketing thus other pharmaceutical companies (competitors) in the
industry would have an opportunity to compete on a fair platform.
The government would receive the necessary taxes while doctors
would live a more fulfilled life with good salaries and wages being
received. Proper CSR would help in facilitating efforts to reach a
solution to the health care problem.

Several Indian pharmaceutical firms are working on a

coronavirus vaccine as part of global efforts to find a
preventive to stem the spread of the deadly virus. Vaccines
usually take years to develop and much longer to mass-
produce, but scientists are hoping to have one ready in few
months. As the number of coronavirus cases in the country
continues to increase, the emphasis has shifted to
vaccination. The Government of India is leading the fight
against the COVID19 pandemic in partnership with the States
and UTs. Vaccination is an important part of the Government
of India's five-point plan for containing and managing the
COVID19 pandemic, which also includes Test, Track, Treat,
and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Read more at: https://www.goodreturns.in/personal-

finance/planning/list-of-indian-pharma-companies-
producing-covid-19-vaccines-1209229.html
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare facilities and
medicines have become the need of the hour. India, the second-
largest populated country, has also seen numerous cases of Covid-
19 and the numbers are still growing. India's pharma sector is also
growing and changing lives by providing the necessary amenities.
According to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, the
turnover of pharmaceutical companies in India was 18.12 billion
USD in 2018 and 19.14 billion USD in the fiscal year 2019. The
domestic drug market recorded sales worth 2.15 billion USD in
April 2021. It has increased 51.5% compared to $1.42 billion in
April 2020. The moving annual turnover is $20.88 billion as of
April 2021, up from $19.64 billion in April 2020.
The Indian pharmaceutical market is expected to be worth
33.18 billion USD and will reach 9th position in the global
pharma market by 2023. Here, we have listed some of the best
pharmaceutical companies, which manufacture exemplary
pharmaceutical products in India and are ruling India's pharma
sector.