The business of pain relief | DW Documentary (Pharma documentary)

Pain relief medication is easily available over the counter in many countries. Our documentary investigates the big business of painkillers. [Online until: 02.12.2018]
Millions of consumers in Germany and France are well provided for with cheap, fast-acting, over the counter painkillers without any significant side effects -- diclofenac, ibuprofen, aspirin and paracetamol. At least, that’s how it looks. But the pharmaceutical industry influences politicians and doctors and cover up fatal risks, as this investigative documentary shows. More than 150 million packs of over-the-counter painkillers are sold in Germany and France every year. But patients are rarely given enough information about what they are taking. Over the counter pain relief worth more than half a billion euros are sold annually. The investigative journalists behind the US website "Dollars for Docs" are following the money. In the documentary, Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy Weber explains how they come by the data of US doctors who receive money from the pharmaceutical industry, in the form of lecture fees, consulting fees or vacation trips. Some physicians earn as much as a million dollars a year in addition to their normal practice. Questions about the independence of these physicians have now led to a new law in the US that requires doctors to disclose the funds they receive from industry. Featuring both critics and advocates of the practice, the documentary looks at how physicians are involved in the pharmaceutical industry. Meanwhile, Waldtraut Eicke’s case shows just how fatal faith in analgesics can be. Years of analgesic use has made her a dialysis patient. Her kidneys no longer work - known in the jargon as "analgesic kidneys.”
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