Selling Sickness: Turning Healthy People Into Patients

In his book "Selling Sickness", author Ray Moynihan discloses comments made by the head of Merck pharmaceuticals some 30 years ago. Distressed that the market for Merck's products was limited to sick people, he openly wished for his company to be more like Wrigley's chewing gum. He dreamed of making drugs for healthy people so they could "sell to everyone."

Fast-forward to today. The pharmaceutical giants now fund aggressive, multi-billion-dollar marketing campaigns that aim to widen the boundaries of illness. Case in point: statin drugs.

Statins are already some of the most widely prescribed drugs, and the pharmaceutical machine is looking for ways to expand that market. The drug companies are now pushing for statins to be used to treat everything from Alzheimer's to diabetes and arthritis.

They have also been successful at reducing the threshold for the treatment of high cholesterol. In fact, a recent Pfizer study recommends statins for patients with normal cholesterol levels. Other patent holders argue that statins should be taken by EVERY person over the age of 55. And if that's not enough, some medical professionals are even recommending these drugs for children.

Stay tuned. Tomorrow, I'll tell you one of the ways they got the government to lower cholesterol standards.

- Jon Herring
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This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #1397, 04-25-05], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.