I can’t help myself when it comes to pimpin’ Malcolm Gladwell. You see, I value people who can make the complicated uncomplicated and can forgo conventional thought for intellectual thought. And Gladwell does both.
Case in point … his take on the high prices of prescription drugs.
In a recent New Yorker article, High Prices -- How to Think about Prescription Drugs, Gladwell expertly dispels the myth that it’s the fault of the pharmaceutical drug companies for rising drug costs.
Instead, Gladwell argues, “... drug expenditures are rising rapidly in the United States not so much because we're being charged more for prescription drugs but because more people are taking more medications in more expensive combinations. It's not price that matters; it's volume."
In the article Gladwell goes on to point out we have become far more aggressive in the treatment of diseases. And because of the intensity to which we are treating illnesses with prescription drugs, the volume of drug use has increased precipitously. In essence, we are spending more on drugs because we are using more drugs.
Gladwell writes, “The fact that volume matters more than price also means that the emphasis of the prescription-drug debate is all wrong. We've been focused on the drug manufacturers. But decisions about prevalence, therapeutic mix, and intensity aren't made by the producers of drugs. They're made by the consumers of drugs.”
Gladwell continues … “The core problem in bringing drug spending under control, in other words, is persuading the users and buyers and prescribers of drugs to behave rationally, and the reason we're in the mess we're in is that, so far, we simply haven't done a very good job of that.”
Malcolm addresses other aspects in this complicated pharmaceutical drug game, made all the more relevant thanks to the recent Vioxx and Celebrex mishaps.
A worthy read for all.
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Other Brand Autopsy pimpin' Gladwell posts:
Brand Autopsy pimpin' Gladwell post #1 | Oct. 1, 2004
Brand Autopsy pimpin' Gladwell post #2 | Dec. 16, 2004
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