The head of Merck, one of the world's largest drug companies, Henry Gadsden told fortune magazine thirty years ago that he wanted Merck to become more similar to companies such as Wrigley's chewing gum. He said to make drugs for a healthy person has been his dream for years so that Merck could "sell to everyone".
Today, Gadsden's dream has become a reality, and marketing to the healthy now is the driving force behind one of the most profitable industries in the world. Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness by using their dominating persuasion in the world of medical science. Old conditions are expanded, new ones created, and markets for medication grow even larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Common examples of this can be seen when runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive......
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