Arguments Against Big Pharma

Every citizen in the United States has individual rights protected by the Constitution. This protection also includes businesses that have gone through the legal process to become a legal entity ; more commonly known as becoming a corporation. Many times these individual rights, protected by the Constitution, conflict with the common good and as history shows, the courts consistently side with the common good when faced with a case that pits these two against each other. Big Pharma are corporations exercising their individual rights to market, and sell their product to consumers. In the process, the common good is suffering. We need to pass legislation that balances corporation’s individual rights to freely promote, market, and sell legal

However, they should not be allowed to target the consumers themselves on television, only though physicians. This would drastically reduce over prescribing and patients being prescribed drugs they do not need. By banning drug and narcotic advertising, this would infringe the corporation’s rights to free speech. This has been one of the top argument for why legislation should not be passed, as seen in the lawsuit by Arimin against the FDA. This is a very strong argument as it has constitutional backing. Their individual right to free speech, however, is not as important as the common good. Legislation has passed on this same premise previously. The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act prohibits tobacco products to be advertised on television due to the public health concern caused by tobacco. This relates to the common good because of the public health concern. The Supreme Court has shown that public health and the common good trump the individual right to free speech in cases like this. Such as the Lorillard Tobacco Co. v. Reilly case which banned tobacco advertising. This decision was made even though it infringed on the corporations right to free speech (Hudson). I agree with this decision to ban tobacco advertising regardless of the fact that it is unconstitutional. This Supreme Court ruling refutes the validity of the argument that the individual right of free speech in advertising being more important than the common good, in this case the common good attributes to public health. It is clear these prescription drugs are a hazard to public health. Prescription drugs (opiates only) have caused over 165,000 deaths within the last 15 years and is currently on the rise. Over 2 million Americans in 2014 were addicted to Opiate prescription narcotics. The most troubling fact is listed directly on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website: “As many as 1 in 4