Big Pharma Helps — Not Hurts — Health Care

Although pharmaceutical companies are often accused of contributing to health care problems by driving up costs, those allegations ring hollow next to the industry’s improvements to health care, said Geno Germano, president of U.S. and pharmaceutical business for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

“The reality is, I’m pretty proud of the contributions pharmaceuticals have made to healthcare over the years,” said Germano, who gave the keynote address at the seventh annual Healthcare Group Conference, sponsored by the student-led Healthcare Group, at Harper Center on October 24.

Pharmaceuticals have dramatically reduced cardiovascular disease, significantly improved treatments for cancer, and essentially eradicated invasive pneumococcal disease, he said. “I could go on and on and on with examples,” Germano said. “People say the costs of pharmaceuticals are a problem, but I have to remind myself we wouldn’t have some of the tremendous advances we have if we weren’t making the investments we make for better solutions.”

The real problem with pharmaceuticals is that they are underutilized, he said. Within the first two or three months, 40 percent of patients prescribed medicine either stop taking it or become inconsistent in taking the recommended regimen, Germano said.

“Patient compliance or adherence to therapeutic prescriptions is, in my world, really the big drug problem in this country,” he said. “If we can find ways to improve that, we can actually lower overall health care cost. That’s been documented in a number of important studies.”

Nobody likes direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceuticals, but it’s effective, Germano said. “It’s a little bit of a challenge because health care is complicated,” he said. “For a pharma company to go through the process of developing and getting a new medicine on the market and not marketing it and selling it – just kind of hoping everybody is going to notice that it’s out there – is just not a sustainable model.”

Part of the problem is that the industry is so regulated that many of the ads are “terrible,” Germano said. “My family often jokes to me, ‘Are you trying to talk us into taking the medicine or out of taking the medicine?” he said.

Students interested in careers in health care should not worry about where to start, Germano said. “What’s important is that you get into the system, ideally in a place that you think you’re going to enjoy,” he said. “Once you get in, you start building your network and looking around to see what stimulates you. Sometimes you just don’t know; you’ve just got to try a few things. I’m not sure there’s any one place that is the best, right entry place.”

Germano emphasized students should look for a “good fit” in entering health care, said second-year student Sameeha Hussain, co-chair of the student-led Healthcare Group. “Maybe you want to get a good understanding of operations, manufacturing, and marketing on a mass scale,” Hussain said. “If that’s the case, then pharma or a major biotech company might be good for you. If you’re really an entrepreneurial spirit and you’re looking to learn things from a small-group perspective, then a smaller firm would be the best place for you.”