Why prescription drugs are so expensive

I know no one asked but I’m going to tell you anyway. Do you know why prescription drugs are so expensive? It’s obviously not the research since so many drugs have side effects that are worse than the disease. I doubt it’s the ingredients either. The reason I think that the cost of prescription drugs is so high is the amount of promotion that pharmaceutical companies put into their products. I’m not even talking about the multi-million dollar commercials that you see on TV. I think those should be illegal but I digress.

The promotion that I’m talking about is the one that’s pitched to doctors and the medical community at large. Anybody who has ever worked at any kind of medical facility can tell tales of the onslaught of promotion that they receive from the drug companies.

First, there are the drug reps. These are ridiculously good-looking people whose sole purpose is to go to the doctors’ offices to try to get the doctors to use their drug. I imagine they have an equally ridiculous salary along with ridiculous travel expenses. If not I’m sure the drug companies are spending a lot of money creating these flawless people in their labs.

Then there’s the food. At some of the facilities I worked at, drug reps would provide a catered lunch to the office staff at least once a week.

Most importantly there are the toys. The drug reps come armed to the teeth with items branded with the drug’s name on it. Pen, pads, stress balls shaped like pills, stuffed toys that look like internal organs, clipboards, flashlights, frisbees, t-shirts, coffee mugs, tiny footballs, clocks, toy race cars, toy telescopes (that one actually came in handy), bouncy balls, bouncy balls that light up, pens that light up in different colors…well you get the idea.

So the next time you’re at the pharmacy and the fee for your prescription has gone up again just remember it’s because of a bunch of well-fed medical employees with a lot of useless crap on their desks.