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Comment by xamuel | Hacker News Reader

So ease access to the drugs and tighten the regulations around advertising. The fact we have consumer-driven ads for prescription drugs at all is like something you'd expect in a satire novel :P

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The cynical view is that other countries have restrictions around drug advertising because if an expensive drug is demanded they have to pay for it through their single payer system. I can imagine not wanting the population to find out that there is cure for Hepatitis C but it costs the country 20k per person. Not all countries are as forward thinking as Australia:

http://theconversation.com/australia-leads-the-world-in-hepa...

Only New Zealand and the US allow prescription drug marketing directly to consumers. And yet, all other developed nations seem to be doing well managing pharma access for their citizens.

A cynic might think this policy is intended to juice US pharma profits.

idk, the past few times I was in Russia I saw a plethora of adverts on TV for drugs.

Not prescription drugs.

While I applaud cynical views in general, since most of the rest of the world has restrictions on the prices of prescription drugs this idea doesn't work in most cases.

There is a more cynical view, and you should definitely take it. Less doctor involvement means more people taking prescription drugs (the pharma companies hope).

As an aside, I cannot tell you how angry our direct-to-consumer drug advertisements make me. Especially the ones that are marketed to people with terminal diseases offering them hope (but in the small print offering perhaps 3 months longer life, not guaranteed).

Everyone involved in the process should be ashamed of themselves.

> As an aside, I cannot tell you how angry our direct-to-consumer drug advertisements make me. Especially the ones that are marketed to people with terminal diseases offering them hope (but in the small print offering perhaps 3 months longer life, not guaranteed).

After reading an related article (http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/07/17/who-by-very-slow-decay/) a few weeks ago, it's no surprise that the market has answered the calls of those who really do want doctors to do everything and anything to prolong their loved ones lives. The selling point for these medications are hope, and I agree that it'd be sensible to regulate advertisements so consumers can truly weigh the benefits versus the costs before they in an emotional state.

thanks for the link, it was a good read.

Making it easier to get drugs exacerbates this problem: people start widely prescribing themselves drugs that do them harm, in combinations they don’t understand, all believing what the pervasive advertising mind-control system tells them to believe.

Our current situation is terrible; this just makes it worse.

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