Selling Drugs

At the moment, I'm employed selling a drug called Oxytrol.

It's the Trans Dermal Patch for Over Active Bladder - basically it treats people with incontinence or 'urgency' (as in, a strong, powerful need to pee more regularly than other people.)

Now this is quite a cool drug. As part of the training I undertook to sell it, I learnt how it works and how it stacks up against the rival drugs on the market, Detrol being the best known.

Because Detrol is a pill, 90% of the effective drug (oxybutynin) gets metabolised through the liver and most of it gets turned into a less effective metabolite that doesn't just target the problem (the over active bladder signals) but switches off other receptors in the body too - giving the patient an unbearably dry mouth and often very bad constipation.

Oxytrol, on the other hand, delivers the oxybutynin directly through the patch, which means the liver doesn't get to metabolise the bulk of it before it hits the bloodstream. That means the side effects are much milder (only slightly more than a placebo.)

It's a brand name pharmaceutical drug that is legitimately better than it's rival. Unlike the pharmaceutical companies who are ripping us off (flogging repackaged generics, like paracetamol and ibuprofen, marketed as expensive Tylenol and Nurofen) Watson Pharmaceuticals actually give you a better product - you do indeed get what you paid for.

However, for many insurance companies and health care companies (including the NHS, back in England) the fact that this pharmaceutical drug is better than it's rival doesn't necessarily mean it'll get prescribed.

The NHS recently announced that they're 'going generic.' In order to save millions in prescription drugs charges, they'll prescribe only generic drugs. That means a patient with overactive bladder would get regular, oral oxybutynin tablets instead of Oxytrol because the trans dermal patch is still under licence and would cost the taxpayer more.

This isn't good for the patient. A significant percentage of those prescribed Detrol or generic oxybutynin abandon their course of drugs due to the dry mouth and constipation caused. It might save the tax payer or the insurance company money - but is it the best choice for the patient?

That's why the American health care system does have some advantages over the British one. Okay, it costs money. If you can't afford insurance, you simply don't have access to medical cover. But when you do, you go into a doctor's waiting room with an advantage. You're a consumer, not just a warm body on a cold table. When it comes to decisions about your health, you can make choices that an NHS patient sometimes can't.

If my brief time working in the health care industry has taught me anything, it's that.

I've always been very angry at pharmaceutical companies ripping off consumers with expensive brand packaged generic drugs. However, I now know that sometimes, brand name drugs can offer you what their generic cousins can't.

Private health care is driving advancement in the field of medication. That's something that stagnant monsters like the NHS simply don't do. Going private means you get the best health care your money can buy - if you're lucky enough to afford it. If you can't afford private health care, you're going to have to put up with the generic NHS prescriptions.

However, in the long term, the discoveries made in the name of private health care eventually do filter down through the system. Licences expire. Costs are driven down. While private health care still continues to drive the industry forward, old dinosaurs like the NHS are eventually going to reap the benefit by offering generic versions of drugs that were groundbreaking ten years ago.

I hate to get ripped off - but working in the pharmaceutical industry has helped me understand how private health care has an important part to play, whether you're lucky enough to have private medical insurance or not.