
PLACEBO EFFECT IS GETTING STRONGER
‘The creative power of human thought is becoming stronger’ is a message coming from an unlikely source, the pharmaceutical industry, not exactly a bastion of the new age consciousness. Big Pharma is always looking for the next blockbuster drug, such as Prozac, and many of their promising new drugs are proving to be no better than the sugar pill placebo. What makes this even more disturbing is that the placebo effect is stronger than it was years ago. Could it be that the human mind as it focuses its power into belief is more effective at eliminating depression than the pill prescribed by your medical doctor? This is certainly a disturbing notion to the financial officer peering over the shoulder of the research scientist in the labs of the drug industry. In 2002, sales at the pharmaceutical giant Merck were falling behind competitors, and stock prices were plummeting. In interviews with the media, Edward Scolnick, Merck’s research director, said that his strategy for improving company revenue was to “move strongly into the antidepressant market” which totaled 9.8 billion in sales in 2005, with about 10% of the total American population taking this class of drugs. Scolnick told Forbes magazine; “To remain dominant in the future, we (Merck) need to dominate the central nervous system.” Merck’s efforts to “dominate the central nervous system” were based on an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869, which had performed very well in preliminary research and with few side effects. The “mood market” research scientists study the biochemistry of consciousness looking for innovative ways to intervene with a synthetic chemical, which they can patent, so as to produce transient feelings of well being, most often less anxiety or depression. Once they push the chemical through efficacy and safety studies for approval, it then enters their billion dollar marketing programs which target doctors and patients alike and, voila, they have another blockbuster product. Well, MK-869 looked like a dream to Scolnick as Merck proclaimed their anticipated success at a meeting of 300 securities analysts, but then the research data started to come in. Indeed, test subjects taking MK-869 felt better with less anxiety and depression, but so did the same number of people in the study who took a sugar pill. The only way a drug can be considered effective is to perform better than the placebo, commonly a sugar pill or some other inert substance.
