$600 EpiPens, My Daughter, and My Problem With Big Pharma (Part 3)

I first wrote this article about a month and a half ago, so when I saw the stories coming out about the exorbitant cost of EpiPens in the news, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the makers of them got called out.  This is Part 2.  For Part 2, click here.

At the end of the last post, I was expressing some of my frustrations and skepticism regarding these $600 EpiPens.  This contributes to my overall concern regarding the whole pharmaceutical industry.  Anybody familiar with the Martin Shkreli controversy in which he refused to answer to Congress about why his company raised the cost of a life-saving drug 5000 percent?

Get my point?

Anyhow, another thing that is frustrating to me about the pharmaceutical industry is how it makes so much money in general off of folks who could do without medicine.  Except for particularly severe cases, many folks with hypertension and type 2 diabetes don’t need the crutch of medication in the first place.  They need coaching on how to change their lifestyles.  I also believe that those who have severe cases of such diseases may have to start with medication, but they could be weaned off as they adopt the kind of lifestyles that cause their bodies to heal.

Many people who go to the doctor for viral infections are prescribed antibiotics, which treat bacterial infections, not viral ones.  Even though the argument is that they could halt a secondary bacterial infection, this usually isn’t the case.  Overuse of antibiotics like this is one of the reasons why there are so many fears today of superbugs.

I went to the doctor a couple of years ago for what I thought was Strep Throat, and while the doctor said I didn’t have it, he handed me some pills that had been dropped off at the clinic by some pharmaceutical company.  I don’t know what they were, but he told me to try them to just see if they helped.  I ain’t no guinea pig, man.

All of what I have discussed in this post series is why I believe that there really is a solution for these food allergies.  And as concerned parents who believe that our daughter doesn’t have to live in fear of nuts and nut residues all her life, we are going to seek God and do whatever we can to see our child healed.

Don’t misunderstand me and assume based on what I’ve written that all medicine and all doctors are bad.  I definitely don’t believe that.  They save lives everyday, and have done so for some of my own family members and friends.

At the end of the day, though, I know that as a responsible parent/person, I have to do my own research as well.  I have to see what answers I can find, too, because at the end of the day, my doctor isn’t responsible for my health.  I am.

I’m not content with coughing up $600 without thinking about it.  How about you?