Until recently, drug companies selling blockbuster drugs were the darlings of stock market investors. But of course, not all diseases are blockbusters, warns Martha Rosenberg in a recent AlterNet essay. Supply-driven marketing, also known as “Have Drug – Need Disease and Patients” – not only turns us into pill-popping hypochondriacs, she claims, but it distracts from Big Pharma’s drought of real drugs for real problems.

She reminds us that, in order to be considered a true blockbuster disease, a condition must:

• really exist but have huge diagnostic “wiggle room” and no clear-cut tests
• be potentially serious with “silent symptoms” said to “only get worse” if untreated
• be “under-recognized,” “under-reported” with “barriers” to treatment
• explain hitherto vague health problems that a patient has had
• have a catchy name — ED, ADHD, RLS, Low T or IBS — and instant medical identity
• need an expensive new drug that has no generic equivalent