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Shame on CVS

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PAL member Change to Win challenges CVS

A group of labor unions is launching a campaign that accuses CVS Caremark Corp. of violating patient privacy and improperly pushing doctors to prescribe a costly prescription drug.

CVS who basically purchased Caremark in 2007 doesn’t seem to care about privacy when profit is concerned. The drug that CVS is pushing is Merck’s diabetes drug Januvia. They appear to be pressuring doctors to prescribe this drug.

Januvia is as much as eight times more expensive than many other diabetes treatments, according to a recent study. Some medical experts say patients may not need the drug and may respond just as well to older, cheaper treatments…

CVS and Merck a filthy marriage indeed.

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Written by Jason Gooljar

November 15th, 2008 at 1:29 am

Posted in Corporatism,Labor

Tagged with , , , ,

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  • Victoria

    Every story I’ve read on this topic seems to take for granted that doctors do exactly what they’re told to do by every brochure they receive. If you believe that to be true, than our problems go far beyond CVS. If you don’t believe that to be true, than why are you so concerned?

    Every time you swipe a discount card at the grocery store, search for books on Amazon, update your MySpace profile or do any number of everyday things, your “consumer profile” triggers marketers to offer you things you might need or want, based on the other things you’ve demonstrated that you need or want. It’s called CRM and it is slowly helping us receive only the advertising messages that are relevant to us. The CVS issue is no different. Instead of subjecting a broad population to incessent television ads for Viagra, diabetics and their doctors are receiving ads for diabetes medications. Thankfully, diabetes does not turn its sufferers into sheep. Everyone still has the ability to make their own decisions.

  • http://www.jasongooljar.com Jason Gooljar

    Why are they pushing a more expensive drug on people?

    From the article

    Januvia is as much as eight times more expensive than many other diabetes treatments, according to a recent study. Some medical experts say patients may not need the drug and may respond just as well to older, cheaper treatments…

    Isn’t there also a matter of privacy? Why is this sort of information being shared with Merck? There are other ways Merck can market it’s expensive drug to consumers. Lastly, you should be truthful and disclose who you work for.