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Fear of the influenza virus in Mexico not only increased the sales
of big pharmaceutical medicines, it also encouraged more people to buy
generic medicines that are available without prescription.
After the scare, everyone thought they had the virus.
They all began to panic and that's when pharmaceutical companies started to profit.
At the same time that the government declared an emergency due to influenza and an unprecedented
ad campaign for medications, Televisa enabled its partner, Genomma Lab, to increase its sales
by 50 percent in just three months.
If you have a cold, you could get an occasional headache ...
Its messages are repeated during primetime programming every 20 seconds or less.
Genomma Lab, which has grown during the past 10 years thanks to sales from its "miracle" products, now controls
the distribution and sale of generic drugs.
Psychological depression, which affects 10 million Mexicans and 7 million young people who are
neither studying nor working, leads to other diseases and to an audience receptive to messages
about products that promise to make them feel better.
You can cure common ailments, such as headaches or stomach aches,
with products you see on television.
To generate sales that are 10 times greater than any other pharmaceutical company, Televisa did not have
to learn the business. All it did was buy medicines from independent laboratories and
label them with its new brand: "Primer Nivel" [First Level].
This is Edith Villegas García, owner of a traditional pharmacy in Mexico City
that has refused to sell "Primer Nivel."
The are affecting pharmacy sales, because many people
order these products, but do not know that they are exactly the same as the generics.
They are charging for the advertising, but are not providing better quality.
Televisa owns soccer teams, magazines, casinos, electronic gambling machines and a cell phone company.
It receives preferential treatment from the government, which allows it to defer paying taxes
that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The company counts on government representatives, who defend its interests in the legislature.
Through four television stations, whose signals reach most of Mexico, the company uses its
highly rated programs -- watched by 70 million viewers -- to promote its products,
which are available without medical prescriptions.
Gabriel Sosa Plata, a university professor and director of
the Mexican Association for the Right to Information:
Instead of having a social responsibility, which is what the major media outlets should have,
particularly those who operate under a concession granted by the state -- as all of Televisa's television
stations do -- they form alliances that harm the interests
of their own audiences.
The Ministry of Health has limited resources to monitor advertising violations, but
it is good business to pay a fine of $40,000 for an ad that violates
the law if the product will bring in sales of $1 million.
Chemical Engineer Claudia Jaramillo is an official of the Ministry of Health in charge
of monitoring violations in advertising. Genomma Lab is one of the most
closely watched companies.
We noticed that many companies actually prefer to pay the fine because of the profits they
will generate from their advertising.
It is true that many companies evade some things.
Or they find ways to skirt the law.
We eventually detect it, but we don't have the
legal basis to act.
One of Televisa's tactics is to use its leading newscasters
to advertise medicines.
Because of the credibility that some of their reporters have, they are
used for purely business purposes. The company relies on a tacit recognition that it
has the audience's trust, and that credibility is now used to sell
products that have been very seriously questioned in our country.
The worst part is the denigration of journalism that is taking place.
One consequence of the monopoly has been the closure of independent pharmacies that do not
have the benefit of the publicity given to the large supermarket chains and
pharmaceutical companies.
Televisa has the capacity to confront the state and put conditions to the government.
If it dominates the market for entertainment and information in Mexico, with its growing influence
in the pharmaceutical market, soon it will also be a superpower in the public health sector.