Summary Of Melody Peterson's 'Our Daily Meds'

In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs, the marketing behind pills, and the use of media outlets.

“There is no real definition for disease. ” This is a claim that Melody Petersen makes in her book. Most would define disease as an abnormality in regards to health. This seems logical, but it leads to the following question : what is “normal” ? What is the definition of “healthy” ? Asking major pharmaceutical companies these questions will most likely lead to the following conclusion: disease is malleable. In other words, it is open to a certain level of interpretation. According to Petersen, giant drug manufacturers consider disease to be a business. Thus, they create a market out of people’s physical or emotional shortcomings. In 1998, Pharmacia, a large American manufacturer of prescription drugs,

Newspapers such as the New York Times published articles about “diseases” and their effects on everyday people. In the case of Detrol, reports of middle-aged people constantly having to empty their bladders lead many Americans to question their habits. Pharmacia used opinion polls and surveys as statistics, and several reporters used these surveys in their articles . Although the FDA warned Pharmacia that their claims did not have evidentiary support, the company continued to sell the disease and the drug to the American public. Companies such as Pharmacia were ruthless in their quest to sell their