How the opioid crisis came to pass.

Pharmawars is a compelling novel, that shows how pharma marketing works in detail. It is written in a way, that can easily be understood by anybody.

Pharma marketing is a very well-orchestrated process that includes many individual steps.

-      Disease mongering.

-      Manipulation of therapy guidelines.

-      Phase 3 clinical trials

-      Preparing/manipulating of the medical press, prior to the introduction of

        the drug.

-      Preparing the introduction of the drugs through medical congresses.

-      Panels of physicians that speak on behalf of the company on congresses,

        and both regional and local physician’s meetings. (advisory boards)

-      Continuous medical education (CME)

-      Setting up sales regions.

-      Using influence network marketing, to identify main describers in the

        appointed medical field.

-      The use of call centers.

-      Pharmaceutical sales representatives.

-      Etc.

These strategies are woven together in a way, so they cannot easily be identified as a general strategy. Everything appears to be business as usual.

The downside of this cumulative strategy is, that especially novel drugs are pushed into the market very speedily. This process is called “accelerating the uptake” in the pharmaceutical industry.

This happens at a time where the true adverse drug reactions that may occur and that have not been addressed in the clinical phase 3 studies, are not known. The likelihood of adverse drug reactions is very high. Following these strategies ensures exceptional growth to the individual drugs, which is the aim of the game. Experience has shown however, that physicians are not informed about the true risks of these drugs. They can either inform their patients, so there is an informed consent on the use of the drug, nor do they really know how to cope with the adverse drug reactions when they occur.

Unless the data from clinical trials, that are needed in order to register the drug and get marketing permission, are not publicly available, nobody really knows how to deal with these situations. This information is considered to be confidential by the FDA due to company secrets that have to be protected.

This was how the opioid crisis happened. The producer Purdue Pharma introduce OxyContin claiming, that you to the retardation of the incorporated Oxicodone hadrochloride the substance would never reach the threshold in the body, that would lead to addiction. Nobody knew at that time how high these thresholds really were. The physicians, unable to access the clinical trial data, believed the pharmaceutical sales reps and all the information that were handed down to them on various other occasions and used OxyContin in patients that were not suffering from terminal pain. At the end of the therapy, the patients were left behind being addicted to OxiConitn, with all the other problems that we know so well.

What is so very astounding from a pharmacological standpoint is, but physicians never questioned these theories, that by now have proven to be false.

After reading Pharmawars, you will understand these strategies and learn how to identify wether they are used in your case. You will know how to successfully bypass them and avoid the related health risks.

German

Im Jahr 2015 war es soweit. Nach insgesamt vierjähriger Arbeit habe ich das Buch Pharmakrieg veröffentlicht. In dem Buch schildere ich anhand eines fiktiven Falles von tödlichen Arzneimittelnebenwirkungen, die Weise in der Arzneimittel in Deutschland aber auch in vielen anderen Ländern der Welt vermarktet werden. Dabei geht es um Strategien, wie Märkte auf neue Arzneimittel vorbereitet werden, wie Werbung für Arzneimittel durchgeführt wird, wie Ärzte angesprochen werden und welche Strategien Industrieunternehmen entwickeln, um Ärzte bezogen auf die Wirkung eines Arzneimittels aber auch die Risiken desselben möglicherweise hinters Licht zu führen.

Wenn Sie sich für diese Strukturen und Vorgehensweisen interessieren, dann enthält dieses Buch für Sie eine Vielzahl von wichtigen Informationen. Um möglichen Angriffen seitens interessierter Kreise aus dem Weg zu gehen, habe ich es als dokumentarischen Roman geschrieben. Es ist gleichzeitig mit einem umfangreichen Sachteil versehen, der ihnen hilft zu erkennen wann bezogen auf ein bestimmtes Arzneimittel möglicherweise Missbrauch im Spiel ist.

Das Buch wurde im epubli Verlag veröffentlicht (www.epubli.de) und ist in jeder Buchhandlung unter folgender ISBN Nummer bestellbar: 978-3-8442-8015-9