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• b) Metabolic syndrome - one of the invented diseases
One of the most famous examples of a "manufactured" disease is the metabolic syndrome, also known as the "belly syndrome". This condition was discovered in 1995 and, according to studies, affects one in four people. Acomplia, a drug produced by the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, was launched in 2007 as a solution for metabolic syndrome. However, the syndrome was just a conglomeration of risk factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity, factors that could already be treated with existing and effective drugs. Although Acomplia initially appeared to be a success, after a year and a half of its release, severe side effects began to occur, including psychiatric disorders and even deaths by suicide. The drug was eventually pulled from the market, but not before generating huge profits for Sanofi. It seems that the clinical trials carried out before the launch would have revealed these side effects, but they were minimized and the health authorities did not intervene in time.
Another example is osteoporosis, a condition related to bone aging. Diagnostic campaigns funded by big pharmaceutical companies suggest that anyone whose bone density is less than that of a 30-year-old woman has osteoporosis. In reality, many of these people are perfectly healthy, and drugs offered to treat osteoporosis, such as Merck's, reduce the risk of bone fracture to only one in a hundred people, while four in a hundred develop necrosis of the jaw after four years of treatment. Instead of being useful, these drugs become dangerous for the health of patients.
• c) Artificial expansion of chronic and sexually transmitted diseases - for the benefit of pharma companies
Several French and German publications claim that the pharmaceutical industry has artificially expanded the scope of diseases by focusing on chronic and sexual problems, diabetes and cholesterol being two classic examples.
Thus, if in the past diabetes was diagnosed when blood sugar exceeded 140 mg/dl, in 1997 an expert committee of the World Health Organization lowered the threshold to 126 mg/dl, turning tens of millions of people into diabetics overnight. A similar process occurred with cholesterol: in 1998, the threshold was lowered from 240 mg/dl to 200 mg/dl, increasing by 86% the number of patients diagnosed with hypercholesterolemia in the United States.
Another area in which pharmaceutical laboratories have intervened aggressively is that of sexual health. Female impotence, erectile dysfunction, menopause, andropause, and other sexual symptoms have been turned into treatable pathologies, even though many of these are normal manifestations of aging. Lab-funded studies indicate, for example, that 43 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 59 suffer from sexual dysfunction, but these numbers are often inflated to create a larger market for the drugs.
• d) The Covid-19 vaccine: A lesson in transparency and pricing
A recent case of the discrepancy between production cost and selling price is the Covid-19 vaccine. Although the production cost of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had been estimated at around $1 per dose, it was sold for up to euro19 in Europe. This difference highlights the lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry, where the final price does not always reflect the actual production costs.
Furthermore, Pfizer benefited from significant public funding during the development of the vaccine, receiving help from the German government and the European Commission. This example highlights the need for greater transparency regarding public subsidies and drug prices. The state should know exactly how much aid each company receives and how much it really costs to produce a medicine.
Prior to the situation triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic, Boris Hauray, Inserm researcher at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Social Problems (Iris) said for Radio France, in an interview granted in June 2019: "The influence of the pharmaceutical industry is strong. It is all the more powerful because it is somewhat systemic. Manufacturers fund drug trials, often control them, and are also extremely present in the life of the medical world. Obviously, and this is classic, there are industrial interest groups that try to influence political decisions in their direction. Obviously, this whole industry is geared towards finding drugs that work, that's their interest. Manufacturers have influence strategies, they aim above all to ensure that the drugs they are trying to develop are sold as much as possible."
• Manipulation of the medical system and the impact on public health
One of the most troubling aspects of this manipulation is the enormous influence pharmaceutical laboratories wield over the medical community. In France, for example, 20,000 distributors enter doctors' offices, hospitals and pharmacies every day to promote medicines. These distributors represent the interests of several multinational pharmaceutical companies that launch approximately 300 new drugs annually.
Pharmaceutical laboratories spend an average of euro25,000 per year on each doctor, organizing conferences, paying for their travel and influencing their opinions. Many times, doctors are in good faith and do not realize that they are being manipulated. In other cases, money is a strong enough motivation to promote new drugs, even when they bring no real benefit to patients.
Regarding the marketing of the new products, the cited source also provides the statement of Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, a Danish author specializing in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, who studied the marketing plan for the antidepressant Lexapro made public by the US Senate. According to the Danish expert, the drug manufacturer has invested 115 million dollars in promotional costs, including 36 million for educational meals offered to doctors and the same amount for conferences held by opinion leaders. Marcia Angell, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, told the source: "This industry today is essentially a marketing machine. He aims to sell drugs whose benefits are uncertain, using his wealth and his power to influence, coerce and circumvent public institutions that might stand in his way; influence and coercion are exerted above all on doctors, because they are the ones who make one diagnosis or another and who prescribe the drugs".
Under these conditions, the power of big pharmaceutical companies is becoming more and more evident, and the control they exercise over drug prices raises ethical and economic questions. States seem powerless in the face of these economic giants. Health ministers in many countries face the dilemma of accepting exorbitant drug prices or denying life-saving treatments to the population, an act with political and electoral consequences.
A telling example is that of a medicine developed by Novartis, which costs 2 million euros per dose, intended to save the lives of children. These record prices illustrate how far pharmaceutical companies have come in dictating the market, and the lack of competition allows them to charge extremely high prices for their products.
In conclusion, it appears that the pharmaceutical industry has turned away from the noble goal of improving public health, focusing instead on increasing profits by artificially expanding the drug market. From invented diseases to artificially lowering thresholds for diagnosing chronic conditions, pharmaceutical labs turn healthy people into patients. This practice has devastating effects on public health, creating an anxious, hypochondriac and drug-dependent society. In a world where every little ailment can be treated with a pill, we are moving away from our natural ability to cope with life and heal.
The power of pharmaceutical companies to manipulate the market and prices is a global problem. States must adopt stricter regulatory measures and ensure transparency regarding drug production costs and prices. In addition, it is essential to limit the influence of the pharmaceutical lobby, which, through consulting firms and organizations, continues to circumvent control mechanisms and promote the interests of big companies.
The manufacture of diseases, the exploitation of fears and the lack of competition are causes who have transformed the pharmaceutical industry into one of the most profitable sectors in the world. Protecting public health and ensuring equitable access to medicines requires concerted action by regulators, governments and international organizations.
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