I heard on one of my educational tapes the other day that there are currently eight impotence drugs in the product pipeline, and today I read about one, already being touted as giving erections lasting up to 36 hours. This isn’t what the world needs; it may be what Lilly needs to make another gazillion dollars, but it isn’t what the world needs.
 
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m all for free markets and free trade, etc. I’m not for capping profits or for socializing industry. What I am in favor of is having useful medications to treat my Emergency Department patients with, such as injectable compazine, injectable phenobarbital, tetanus immunizations, methohexital, etc, which are reportedly no longer being made. I’m told these shortages or outright unavailabilities are due to market forces, i.e., when something is so cheap profit cannot be made, nobody will make it. I don’t necessarily buy that but have no evidence to refute it either.
 
Therefore, I have resolved to harangue every single pharmaceutical rep who wants me to prescribe $250 of their latest greatest otitis media antibiotic, or their “me too” flouroquinolone, that these aren’t the drugs my patients need. I need meds to make them stop vomiting, stop seizing, prevent tetanus, etc.
Maybe these guys have it right, but by not speaking to reps they limit their advocacy (not that it’ll help, but it will make me feel better). And hopefully only my arguments will be impotent.
