Our founding story
Healthcare systems across the world are sick and the deficient element is trust.
Over the last few decades, trust between all parties involved has declined steadily.
Patients’ trust for pharmaceutical companies has fallen every year.
No other industry providing essential, life-saving products shares a perception of such suspicion, fear and even frank hatred.
Trust in physicians has led to a weakening of the very foundation of the system.
Patients, already vulnerable during illness, often feel further burdened by doubt in those responsible for their treatment.
1. Everything was great, and now it’s not. What happened?
Early 1970s, the pharmaceutical industry enjoyed the same mixed reputation as any other business: they were creating consumer products, were marketing to consumers, and were driven by profits- like any other industry.
There were some questionable products and some questionable marketing strategies: tall claims, poor safety standards, some lobbying to allow drugs without adequate safety testing- but not significantly more than other industries
Patients trusted physicians, seeing them as ethical and selfless.
And then, in a quick succession, horrifying incidents exposed the risks of poor regulation: the thalidomide tragedy, and the still-continuing opioid crisis.
A critical step had been the misuse of pharmaceutical companies’ relationships with physicians, push for use prior to regulatory approvals, and physicians’ giving in to this pressure.
Physicians came to be increasingly viewed as service providers rather than caregivers. Patients became clients. With ratings and google reviews, physicians joined the ranks of restaurants, manicurists and clothing brands.
But not completely so.
Nowhere else is the relationship between manufacturers and providers as fraught with discomfort, as in healthcare.
In a bid to regain patients’ trust, doctors have actively distanced themselves from pharmaceutical companies. Associations of medical professionals have laid guidelines for what is “ethical”, and these further undermine effective collaboration.
And that’s how we find ourselves here.
Pharmaceutical companies put in millions of dollars into research to build products that can improve quality and length of life.
They need market to doctors.
Like any other consumer industry, building relationships with providers involves incentives and feedback, eventually leading to a stable market which allows consumers to enjoy low prices, multiple options and ample supply.
2. Why has this not happened with healthcare?
This is where things get tricky. The vulnerability and resultant fear has bred mistrust: patients mistrust doctors and pharmaceutical companies, and suspect that any relationship between the latter two can adversely affect them.
A quick search of “unethical pharmaceutical company practices” reveals incentives given to physicians: a standard practice in every consumer industry.
From this perspective, it’s a bit ridiculous: a frozen-food manufacturer can fly the entire management of a food chain company to a lavish holiday, yet it is considered unethical for a drug company to pay for a resident doctor’s registration and travel to an academic conference.
Truly unethical practices - misrepresentation of facts such as exaggeration of benefits, minimising of risks, unsupported claims of off-label uses- are and should be condemned.
3. So how do we change things?
Patients’ needs and welfare needs to hold most weight in any decisions. We all have been and will be patients at some point in our lives: and this humbling recognition needs to drive all efforts.
We have learnt, through a heavy price, that healthcare cannot, and should not, be purely a profit-driven industry. Pharmaceutical companies comply with extensive regulations, and invest in developing medications. Doctors train for years, working hard to develop competence. They can only function with a developed, trustworthy pharmaceutical support.
Once product safety is ensured, the market can be free for competitors to jostle for market share, providing healthy competition and allowing an automatic regulation of prices. Consumers can then be free to choose, based on their experiences and advice of trusted individuals, and have an opportunity to build a trusting relationship with a particular brand.
