Apparently buying rights to catchy songs, finding professional swimmers, and animating magical balloons that instantly rid women of acne and mood swings are all part of drug companies' valued research efforts.
When I watch television I often end up seeing at least one ad for a prescription drug, often repeated several times. They often come with catchy music, for those of you who like to associate contraception, chronic illness, and cancer prevention with song.
Like the "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Every Day…" song in an advertisement for NuvaRing. Or the "Goodbye to You" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" songs from the Yaz ads, in which treating women's premenstrual symptoms is represented by ascending balloons. Apparently the balloon and music research costs a lot — Yaz is $50-65 per MONTH at retail price. If you have insurance, the co-pay is obviously much lower (around $50/3-month supply). But still. I don't think women who need the Pill care about TV balloons.
The ads for Merck's vaccine against HPV, called Gardasil, are very similar to an anti-drug PSA, with attractive mothers and daughters talking about how they will be "one less" woman affected by cervical cancer. While these ads probably help to inform a lot of people about the vaccine, they aren't enough. Merck also has promotional materials in doctor's offices, clinics, my campus bookstore (in the form of special plastic bags that all had Gardasil fliers), etc.
My campus health center waiting room is overcrowded with Gardasil flyers, including some with a sound card and headphones attached so that you can listen to a recording about the vaccine while waiting to see your doctor or nurse practitioner. The website for the vaccine has desktop wallpapers, screensavers, and buddy icons, so that you can advertise the vaccine to all your friends — you can even get designs to iron onto a t-shirt.
I don't disagree that cervical cancer is a serious issue, and I'm glad that there's a vaccine that could potentially save millions of women from getting the disease in the future (not to mention genital warts, which are also caused by HPV). But I find it disturbing to see so much money spent on advertising the vaccine instead of on improving it. Especially when the vaccine is so expensive. It's marketed at $120 a dose, which not all insurance companies cover, and you have to have 3 doses over a 6-month period. That may be less money, in the long run, than hospital stays and chemotherapy, but it's still excessive.
In addition to devoting time to reducing allergic reactions to the vaccine (which contains yeast)*, I would also vote for reducing the pain associated with it. The pain I had from it — a burning sensation as the vaccine was injected that radiated through my upper arm — was made even worse knowing I'd have to go through it another two times, and is apparently a very common side effect. I can't imagine what that kind of pain is like for women who are afraid of needles or really sensitive to pain.
* = I know that allergies are also an issue with flu and chickenpox vaccines (which contain egg). Is it really sensible from a public health perspective to not have alternative versions of these vaccines? Seriously. As much as medicine can do amazing things, it is so illogical sometimes.
I'm not going to take it anymore. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, every day.
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