November 26, 2007

Disease-mongering of constipation

Blogger John Mack writes about the marketing of the drug Amitiza. He says the drugmaker, Takeda, engages in disease-mongering with a claim he found on the Amitiza website: "Chronic Constipation touches the lives of up to 28% of adults in America. Both men and women suffer from it, but the condition is two to three times more common in women."

Mack responds:

"What exactly "touches upon" means is anybody's guess. Nevertheless, the 28% figure is dutifully repeated in media stories.

In fact, the media go even further and cite these numbers given to reporters by Takeda: "Constipation affects 42 million American adults, and 12 million could be characterized as suffering from chronic idiopathic constipation, the condition for which Amitiza is indicated..."

Let me whip out my trusty Microsoft desktop calculator and do some math.

How many US adults are "touched upon" by "chronic constipation?" There are about 220 million US adults over the age of 20. 28% of that equals about 62 million people. Clearly, that's a much greater number than 42 million adults that are said to suffer from simple "constipation" and much greater than the 12 million sufferers of "chronic idiopathic constipation," which is a form of constipation having an unknown cause. The latter is the "official" FDA approved indication for Amitiza. All the other numbers about simple constipation and "touched upon" seem to have been thrown in to confuse us into thinking that this drug is indicated for a much larger population than the FDA gives it marketing approval for."

So prepare for your TV shows and your Reader's Digest to be blocked up by new ads for this constipation drug.

Posted by schwitz at November 26, 2007 08:11 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I just saw one of these commercials. I believe it ends with the promise that takers of the advertised drug will "go" two to three times a week. As conditioned as Americans are today to the drug advertisements and their endless lists of possible side effects, I found this one distasteful and reminiscent of SNL skits...TMI, as my tween would say.

Posted by: Patricia at November 28, 2007 09:39 AM
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