Communications and Media

In her book, she mathematically explains how the drug companies lie by giving figures that does not exist so that they can cater for the costs of their advertising. They claim that it is very expensive to produce drugs so that they can account for their high prices. She opens our eyes by telling us that this is not the case as most of the research and development is done by the university and college students which are funded by the government. (Angell, 2005)
She says that in the market, there are slightly modified products which happen to have the same composition. Customers are therefore spending a lot of money on practically the same drug but different names. She says that because some of the drugs are easy and cheaper to manufacture, the market is filled with different types of drugs for high cholesterol and depression while it lacks some of the potential life saving drugs for diseases that are seriously affecting the third world countries. She also tells us of the high priced junkets that are offered to doctors. These are offered as educational opportunities and they are more than just bribes. These doctors are exploited by these companies into helping them come up with new brands of drugs. (Angell, 2005)
I find this book important as it gives us the reasons as to why we find most of the prescription drugs that are practically the same. Now I understand the reason as to why it takes very long to recover after taking some of these drugs. The reason is that even though one may be changing the drugs, there are chances that he or she is only changing the brand but the content is the same. The author has clearly given the reason as to why there only those drugs that cure only minor ailments while those other serious drugs are not found there. (Angell, 2005)
I find the fact that most of the drugs are expensive because lof of cost was incurred in the advertising very interesting. The reason is that I think that drugs need not to be advertised so that people can buy them. The main reason as to why we buy drugs is due to our sickness. Therefore I find it very interesting that these companies spend a lot of time and resources trying to persuade us to buy their drugs while we will only buy them when we are sick. This is not a reason enough to increase the prices of the drugs. In addition, it had never crossed my mind that the there are so many adverts concerning drugs and that they are all due to competition.
However, this is a very serious exposure and therefore it can be argued that the remedies that the author is giving might be referred to as abstract and timid. The proposal that she makes are not in a position to stop physician from accepting gifts, payments or even meals from the drug companies. Human health is a core factor to existence of mankind and therefore it should be taken with the seriousness that it deserves. I therefore feel that the author has taken this topic too lightly and that she should have provided more stunning recommendations which cater for all the loopholes that exists in this field.
These issues are directly related to the state of healthcare institutions especially in third world countries where they are filled with corruption and embezzlement. In these countries, we find that some of the doctors are not ethical. They work in government hospital and at the same time they have their own private hospital. This means that sometimes, they will take the drugs from the government hospitals and sell them in their private hospitals. In these countries, there are no laws that protect the public from these exploitations. This is a similar case as the one that is discussed by the author.
Apart from these third world countries being rampant with deadly diseases, the healthcare systems are not good at all. For instance, there has been increasing case of human trafficking that is taking place in the world today. Most of the trafficked organs are coming from these third world countries. I understand that in some countries, organs such as kidney are stolen where people are kidnapped, one kidney is removed and then the person is set free. These activities are conducted by professional doctors in legal hospitals. This is a clear indication of how desperately reforms are needed in these institutions. Doctors are turning unethical, embezzling community resources and at the same time using the hospital resources to conduct their criminal activities. These are the same issues discussed by the author in the book.