Medicine Users and Medicine Millionaires: Wanna Make a Lot of Money?

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

As a physician/pharmacologist I retain a great interest in what is going on in the pharmaceutical industry. I search the Internet to see what drugs are used the most. The listings are quite variable depending on who does them. It is often surprising to see the differences.

One list of 50 shows four for pain with, Hydrocodone being number one, and 10 for anxiety/depression, with Alprozolam being number one. The rest are mostly for cholesterol and hypertension.

Another list of the 200 most prescribed indicates that 91 of the group are either psychotropics, including anti-depressants, or strong pain killers. The number one anti-anxiety drug is Alprozolam and the number one pain killer is Oxycodone, strangely Morphine, the standard, is number 20. In the first 40 drugs 34 are anti-anxiety or pain killers. This is a very striking number but in our Medical Marijuana patients about 70% use it for pain, more about that later. Soma and its generic, carisprodol, together put it in the first 20.

In another list of the Top 300, Paxil, an anti-depressant, heads the list with Hydrocodone the number one pain killer. Morphine is number 20. Several (3) of the Oxycodone type are in the top 20. That’s a lot of Oxycodone.

Pharmaceutical sales indicate another really strange order with Lipitor being number one with $5 billion in sales followed by Nexium with $5 billion. Number three is Plavix, number four Advair, and Seroquel, an anti-anxiety/anti-depressant, with $3 billion in sales. The top pain killer is Oxycontin with $3 billion in sales. Many anti-depressants are in the top 20 with all about $1 billion in sales. The lowest of the Top 200 is $150,000,000.

Strangely the pharmaceutical business and the medical insurance business are the most lucrative businesses in the U.S. AARP estimates the retail costs as $52 billion/ My figures don’t quite agree except that in any event it is an awful lot of money.

One author describes this phenomenon as “disease mongering”. Just watch your TV set for 5 minutes. What did people use before these medical blockbusters. Another author wrote “Depression is big business in this country, big business is DEPRESSING in this country”.

One of the strangest concurrent medical phenomenon in this country comes with the legalization of Medical Marijuana which will almost totally replace many if not most of the pain killers, anti-anxiety drugs, anti-depressant drugs and a whole bunch more.

Dr. Phillip Leveque Salem-News.com