Big Pharma Trying To Market, Sell To Latinos

Pharmaceuticals companies aren’t effectively marketing to Latinos, what’s more, Latinos have a hard time getting access to the drugs in the first place. A new survey of doctors shows that their Latino patients are not receiving big pharma’s messages about their drugs. Specifically:

According to the data, 33% of the physicians surveyed gave pharma companies the lowest possible score on communicating, and just 7% said pharma communicates “very well” with Latino/Hispanic patients. On a scale of one to seven – with seven being the highest positive rating – 24% of docs gave pharma a three for communication ability, and another 24% gave pharma a four.

Surveyed physicians also said that Latino/Hispanic populations have less access to pharmaceutical drugs, compared with the general US population. Forty-eight percent of physicians said the general US population has excellent access, while just 14% said Latino/Hispanic patients have excellent access to treatments. Lack of insurance was the number one barrier for Latino/Hispanic patients, followed by language barriers, legal status and lack of education, according to the survey data.

The fact that this survey exists means the pharmaceutical companies have set their sights on the over $1 trillion U.S. Latino market. The second thing to take into account is that Latinos are probably not as drugged-up as the rest of the population, even as pharmaceuticals try to find new ways to medicate those of us in the U.S. who aren’t already taking drugs for something.

Ultimately, if you’re sick and need medication, it’s important that you have it. However, the fact that pharmaceutical companies are sending out surveys like this indicates that they’re astutely interested in breaking into new markets, and that means, making more money off whatever ails you.