Re: Off Topic: Disease Mongering

Pharmaceutical companies give free samples because they are a business. They do marketing. Orange juice has commercials. Milk and cheese have commercials. Not for specific brands, like the cow commercials. Is it sad to see all the drug commercial ads and marketing nowadays? Of course. Why does any company do marketing? Even here, on this website, you can't deny the amount of advertising for products and services. It's a necessary evil in this day and age in order to survive as a business. Free samples are given as a marketing tool, just like free subscriptions to newspapers (and certain bestselling author websites), free samples at the markets. They're given so the consumer can decide if they want to use the product or not. Doctor give free samples all the time. Maybe some are doing it as a tool of the drug companies, hopefully not, but I'm not discounting the possibility because I don't know every physician in the world. For people who cannot afford prescription drugs, free samples are great. For some, it's just a transient problem, and the free samples are enough to cover them. The choice is up to the patient and when that prescription is written, there's no law requiring you to fill it. Cars are expensive. Houses are expensive. Should they be cheaper? Yeah. Could they be cheaper? Yeah.
I am not a doctor and have no ties to the pharmaceutical companies. I have also experienced lots from both allopathic and alternative pathways of healthcare. All I'm saying is the system isn't perfect but it's not the hyperbole of death and destruction that some make it out to be. Tweet