<s>[INST] The competing claims of physicians and the pharmaceutical industry

Today, the pharmaceutical industry is a huge, profitable enterprise.  Because it has the financial resources and the political power to fund research and influence the media, its claims and messages receive widespread attention.  Furthermore, the pharmaceutical industry has a powerful lobbying presence in Washington and other capitals, which impact its influence over government regulators and policymakers.

In contrast, the claims and messages of the opponents of the pharmaceutical industry, primarily physicians, lack widespread attention and efficacy.  Due to a lack of funding and resources, these opponents cannot challenge the pharmaceutical industry's claims using television, radio, or advertising campaigns; experts including physicians, alternative or integrated treatment option advocates, and even mainstream scientists critical of the industry, rely on brief interviews or radio/television appearances, often to little avail. Also, because the industry has so narrowly defined what it means to be "healthy" and therefore what  can be called a "disease," there are growing concerns about the industry's expanding the boundaries of what constitutes a "disease" for the industry's financial gain.

Specifically, the expansion of mental health disorders and definitions has given the pharmaceutical industry substantial opportunities to create and market new drugs.  Due to the shifts in how disease is being defined, the situation opens up a vast, untapped market for the pharmaceutical industry and its groundbreaking medications.  It also conveniently obscures the root causes of disease, as well as their profound implications for the human health paradigm focused on beaming up drugs from the current warehouse inventory and the astronomical price paid to these companies.

As regards the years ahead, it can be envisioned that medical practitioners who protest the influence of the pharmaceutical industry face penalties from powerful forces or see their medical practitioner licenses revoked. Is it a vision for the medical industry to weep and mourn?[/INST]