BIG PHARMA

Martha Rosenberg, Health Reporter & Commentator joins Thom Hartmann. If you think that modern medicines are developed and marketed when the medical industry sees a need for comprehensive treatments for diseases that are becoming more common in a population - then everything you know about the pharmaceutical industry and it's influence in the marketplace is wrong. Analysts say that Big Pharma is often driven by supply-side marketing that makes them billions each year by putting the proverbial cart before the horse -- meaning once they have the drugs in hand, they create enough buzz around the diseases the drugs can supposedly cure to rake in the profits as we turn into a nation of pill-popping hypochondriacs. And all of this is happening while there is a shortage of viable drugs to treat real medical problems. So what are some of the most profitable diseases that Big Pharma hopes we'll all think we have in 2012?

Seven Diseases Big Pharma Hopes You Get in 2012

To be a true blockbuster disease, a condition must (1) really exist but have huge diagnostic "wiggle room" and no clear-cut test, (2) be potentially serious with "silent symptoms" said to "only get worse" if untreated, (3) be "underrecognized," "underreported" with "barriers" to treatment, (4) explain hitherto vague health problems a patient has had, (5) have a catchy name — ED, ADHD, RLS, Low T or IBS — and instant medical identity, and (6) need an expensive new drug that has no generic equivalent.