Bill Moyers w/ Melody Petersen = OUR DAILY MEDS

[L. Coyote]

Melody Petersen talks with Bill Moyers about her new book OUR DAILY MEDS, and how drug companies market medication.
LISTEN / WATCH - http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05162008/watch2.html

May 16, 2008

Pharmaceutical companies were given a stern reprimand on May 8th in a hearing before U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce investigative panel. Rep. Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, criticized what he considers misleading television commercials and suggested that Congress should consider restricting direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising to protect consumers.

DTC advertising is a method Melody Petersen knows well. In her newest book, OUR DAILY MEDS: HOW THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES TRANSFORMED THEMSELVES INTO SLICK MARKETING MACHINES AND HOOKED THE NATION ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS, she describes drugmakers as an industry whose core drive is profit, and one that has insinuated itself, through money, into every level of drug research.

It is a view she came to gradually, reporting for four years on the pharmaceutical companies for THE NEW YORK TIMES. As she tells Bill Moyers:

I actually thought that they were a lot about science. That's what they tell the public. They are all about science and discovering new drugs. But as I started to follow their daily activities and talk to executives, I learned that really it was marketing that drove them.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. I am watching Bill Moyers and apparently "naive" is a code word

This is before the drug segment.

[L. Coyote]

4. See GD-P: "BECAUSE HE IS BLACK" about segment 1

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6003901

[Ilsa]

2. If I wasn't on my med, I'd have to do drugs. nt

[alfredo]

3. I hope we will get honest people in charge of the FDA.