Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease & Pushing Drugs

The documentary film “Big Bucks, Big Pharma” pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain. Focusing on the industry’s marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which Direct-To-Consumer pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors understand and relate to disease and treatment. Ultimately, Big Bucks, Big Pharma challenges us to ask important questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being. The documentary gives an understanding about the reasons we have to fear all kinds of illnesses and why it is good (for them) to believe in their marketing campaigns and buy the drugs they show us on TV. The five bigest pharmaceutical companies in the US allone hat sales of more than 550 Billion USD in 2004!