Pharmaceutical manufacturers spend millions on marketing each year to sell their expensive drugs which are no more effective than older drugs already on the market at a fraction of the cost. Case in point: Lexapro. Forest Laboratories spent $34 million to aggressively market their antidepressant using consultants and “Continuing Medical Education” seminars enticing doctors to prescribe Lexapro over cheaper alternatives. It paid off handsomely…to the tune of $2.3 billion in sales in 2008.
A recent Senate Special Committee on Aging report demonstrated the extent of Forest’s Lexapro marketing plan. Federal prosecutors in Boston have filed a lawsuit against Forest claiming the company illegally marketed Lexapro as well as a related antidepressant Celexa for use in children and paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe them to children. Records indicate Forest is among the top five drug manufacturers, along with Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, and Merck in payments of money and food to doctors who prescribe antidepressants. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), the chairman of the Committee on Aging is investigating these marketing tactics used by the pharmaceutical industry.
Why should we care? For example: a month’s supply of 5 mil tablets of Lexapro costs on average $87.99 compared to just $14.99 for a month’s supply of a generic version. Do the math and it’s easy to see who’s getting taken for a ride. With the majority of Americans demanding health care reform, apparently the profitable ride the drug companies have been enjoying hopefully will soon come to an end.
