A Heavy Dosage: The Pharmaceutical Industry Essay -- Health, Medicatio

Of all the booming businesses in recent history the pharmaceutical industry makes the largest profits of any industry; making approximately three times more than the average fortune 500 company (Silverstein). At the forefront of the drug industries rise is the United States. The United States accounts for nearly half of the world’s pharmaceutical market, and the benefits are evident. The United States is seeing record high life expectancy along with an all time low death rate (â€Å"Life Expectancy at All Time High†). Countless lives have been bettered and saved because of the pharmaceutical industry and the medical advances made within. However, people must remember that the pharmaceutical industry is as much a business as anything. Like any business they are looking to profit and the best interest of the consumer is not always the top priority. Despite the opposition of eager clients, the pharmaceutical industry is in need of reform and more government regulation. Every year 100,000 Americans die from prescription drugs; not including accidents or wrongly prescribed drugs, all these deaths are the results of side effects from properly prescribed and taken drugs (Perdomo 1). That number hasn’t gone down over the last decade and won’t decrease until action is taken. Much of this is due to insufficient testing on drugs before being released. The testing process is too quick to discover many of the long term side effects that a drug may cause. Resulting in 250-300 drugs a year approved by the FDA being recalled (Greve). The standard procedure includes three phases of testing. However, not all drugs go through all phases of testing. If the early tests are successful the FDA often approves it prematurely. Also, if a drug is a minor altera... ...testing of prescription drugs is more rigorous and in-depth, better prescription drugs will reach the market and the ones with devastating effects can be filtered out. If the clinical testing was done by non-profit organizations and the FDA more closely monitored the process, the corruption could be ended, ensuring that only safe drugs are approved. Some government enforced guidelines placed on drug companies will protect Americans from the schemes of the industry along with lowering prices; resulting in more affordable medication for the average citizen. More government control will also end the deceiving marketing tactics used by drug companies. The government involvement will take away the financial motives behind deceptive marketing. Making these changes will utilize all the good the pharmaceutical industry has to offer and eliminate many of the problems.