Drug Companies Raise Awareness of Fibromyalgia to Sell More Drugs
Fibromyalgia is a devastating disease that causes chronic pain and other symptoms for those who are affected – but it’s a disease with no known cause and no standard treatment. Many people haven’t even heard of the condition, but if that’s the case it’s not because the drug industry isn’t trying hard enough.
Drug Companies’ Hundreds of Millions Help Raise Awareness of Fibromyalgia
Last year, drug industry giants Pfizer and Eli Lilly spent hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising to “raise awareness” of fibromyalgia. The companies donated more than six million dollars to non-profit organizations for educational campaigns and medical conferences, too.
That’s more than the companies donated for Alzheimer’s, and diabetes. And only donations made for cancer, depression, and AIDS were higher than the donations made to further the cause of fibromyalgia.
Why all this trouble for a disease nobody’s heard of, that some doctors don’t even believe exists? Simple. Pfizer and Eli Lilly are using their money and influence to “raise awareness” and get doctors prescribing fibromyalgia drugs for people with the disease.
Is Fibromyalgia Real? Why the Sudden Drug Company Interest?
Fibromyalgia is a real disease, especially to those people who are affected by it. But there’s no standard treatment – just a couple of drugs more commonly used to treat other conditions which improve symptoms for some people with fibromyalgia.
Pfizer markets a drug called Lyrica, which originally received FDA approval for the treatment of epileptic seizers. Eli Lilly’s drug, Cymbalta, was originally approved for depression. Both have now been FDA-approved to treat fibromyalgia symptoms and will probably soon be appearing on the formulary lists of prescription drug plans, if they haven’t already.
Sales of the Fibromyalgia Prescriptions since Big-pharma’s Campaign
Since the companies began marketing “awareness” for fibromyalgia, sales increased from $395 million to $702 million for Lyrica, and from $442 million to $721 million for Cymbalta, between 2007 and 2008. Each company spent just over $125 million in advertising its drugs in the first nine months of 2008.
Now this might not necessarily be a bad thing. After all, people with this chronic, painful condition are getting treatment that they need.
The problem, however, is that the underlying purpose for Eli Lilly and Pfizer is simply selling drugs, and some healthcare professionals are concerned that undue influence from the pharmaceutical industry will pressure doctors into diagnosing fibromyalgia more often, even if it might not be appropriate.
In addition, some doctors believe that fibromyalgia, while a real condition, isn’t necessarily physical – that there may also be a psychological or neurological component in the development of the disease. If that’s the case, the drugs that Pfizer and Eli Lilly are pushing may not be the best solution for people with fibromyalgia.
photo credit: ccox888
Tags: chronic pain, drug advertising, drug companies, fibromyalgia, pharamceuticals, pharma, politics, Prescription Drugs
