“Big Pharma and the Big Push for Patients to Take Their Meds”

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“The pharma industry loses tens of billions in worldwide sales each year when patients don’t fill, or refill, their prescriptions,” Rebecca Robbins reports for STAT. So companies are now investing in smart pills that alert prescribers when doses are missed, providing gift cards to thank patients for compliance and even lobbying the government for permission to pay pharmacists to encourage patients to take their pills.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. “The companies are investing in smart pills that will send alerts when they haven’t been swallowed at the prescribed time.”

    Thats backwards,

    The pill has a microchip and a micro battery, the acid for the micro battery is stomach acid itself that turns it on to transmit its “pill taken” signal.

    Drop it in some lemon juice or vinegar to simulate stomach acid, put it near the receiver and collect your gift cards. It may be helpful to warm the liquid to near 98.6

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  2. “’We’re not pushing pills here, we’re pushing adherence,’ … ‘Pharma companies have the sense ‘that they are leaving billions on the table’ when medicine isn’t taken and prescriptions aren’t filled, Lamkin said. The push to improve adherence, he said, ‘reframes the goal of boosting sales as a goal of public service.’”

    It’s all marketing. And this is sick.

    “The companies are investing in smart pills that will send alerts when they haven’t been swallowed at the prescribed time.”

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  3. Here is a case that should be covered on MIA –

    http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/californias-dr-hsiu-ying-lisa-tseng-convicted-murder-overdose-deaths-n454966

    This doctor just got sentenced to 30 years to life for overprescribing drugs that killed 3 patients.

    We need psychiatrists to be tried in this way for overprescribing antipsychotics while not warning patients of the risks of these drugs. Seeing their colleagues go to prison for decades will make psychiatrists think twice about prescribing miserably ineffective, dangerous drugs like antipsychotics that don’t even treat a known illness.

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