Dr. Clove is here to answer that question.

Thanks for the invitation. The content of this article, entitled "Brainwashing medicine that sells 750 million dollars a year, please spare the elderly in China", was first published on Dr. Ding Xiang's public number, and then similarly received a large number of reposts on various platforms such as today's headlines.

This time, why did Dr. Ding point the finger at Saprox? Simply put, there are two reasons:

1. At present, there is no eye drop worldwide that can treat cataracts, and the only effective way to treat cataracts is through surgery;

2. The viral marketing tactics of Sharp-Essence, which were overblown, destroyed the public's perception of the disease.

The 8th edition of Ophthalmology states that there are more than 10 types of anti-cataract medications in clinical use, including traditional Chinese medicines, but their efficacy is not very precise.

Surgery is the most effective way to treat cataracts, regardless of the type of cataract, says the China Prevention of Blindness and Treatment of Blindness Network, an organization of the National Health and Planning Commission (NHPC). So far, no drug has been proven to cure cataracts or stop their progression.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology's 2016 Clinical Guidelines for Cataracts in Adults states that, in humans, no single medication has been found to be effective in treating or slowing the progression of cataracts. Ophthalmologists should make this clear to their patients.

Many ophthalmologists have told us that many elderly people, when they hear that they have to go to the hospital and undergo an operation, will have a heart attack, and Saproxis has taken advantage of such a mentality.

We interviewed several doctors to give us the true psychology of the patients they encountered.

Hongping Cui is the director of ophthalmology at Oriental Hospital and the first ophthalmologist to point out the dangers of Saproxil marketing:

"Saproxis is precisely taking advantage of human's fear of surgery to wrongly publicize that cataracts can be cured without surgery, and my specialist clinic encounters this kind of patients every week. If it really cures cataracts, it will have no problem winning the Nobel Prize."

Professor Li Can, chief ophthalmologist of the First Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, gave us an analysis of the psychology of the elderly:

90% of the patients who come to our clinic have used Saproxel, but almost all of them decide to come for surgery after using it, and they are willing to give it a try if they can stop their cataracts by buying a little medicine". Elderly people are generally stubborn, they don't trust doctors, they trust people they trust on TV, and they trust the words of the "experts" on the Health Channel."

Prof. Yi Lu from the Department of Ophthalmology, Ear, Nose and Throat of Fudan University has also come across many such patients:

"Most of the patients we encounter in the clinic are patients who have had eye drops and still end up coming in for surgery, and from an ophthalmologist's point of view, it's clear that the drug doesn't work," he said.

Yes, if you have eye problems, you can just take a few drops of eye drops and you'll be fine, how convenient.

Some old people, under the publicity of advertisements, take a drop for half a year, a year, or even several years, and they are not willing to go for surgery even though their eyesight is getting worse and worse, firmly believing that the eye drops can cure him. However, in reality, if surgery is not performed, the result will probably still be blindness.

Prof. Cui Hongping said that he has come across many patients who drop eye drops until their cataracts are overripe, leading to glaucoma and uveitis. A problem that could have been solved with a ten-minute surgery, leaving the patient delayed for years and in a blur, not only sacrificing quality of life for a long period of time, but also increasing the risk of surgery when it eventually becomes unavoidable.

Image credit: Screenshot of Dr. Cui Hongping's Weibo account

A disease that could have been cured with a minor surgery in the hospital, but because of these eye drops, the old man has been living in a blurry world for half a year, a year, years ......

They can't see the TV, the furniture in their homes, the food on the table, whether there are cars on the road, or even what their grandchildren look like ......

But really, they could have had a clear, happy life.

What is even more frightening is that when cataracts are not serious, surgery is relatively simple; however, if you insist on eye drops and delay surgical treatment until you have overripe cataracts, it will increase the difficulty of the surgery, which will not only cost you more money, but may also affect the recovery of your vision after the surgery. Some patients may also experience serious complications such as glaucoma and uveitis.

All of this, the Saphris ads don't tell you.

In fact, as early as 2013, Dr. Cui Hongping, director of ophthalmology at Dongfang Hospital affiliated with Tongji University, broke the news with his real name, pointing out that Saproxis had false propaganda. This claim has been supported by many ophthalmologists, and various industrial and commercial regulators have also cracked down on its illegal publicity.

Image source: Screenshot from a 2013 report

However, amidst report after report, amidst the outcry of ophthalmologists at large, instead of stopping production and going to larger scale trials, Saphris eye drops have changed their advertisements from generation to generation, gaining more and more influence, increasing their sales, and making a lot of money.

It even managed to get listed on China's A-share market in 2014, with record sales year after year.

Image source: a financial software

From 500 million in 2012, in just four years, Saproxis has created the myth of nearly 1 billion RMB in revenue, including 750 million in sales of Saproxis eye drops.

What's even scarier is that Saphris has brought new ideas to drug marketing and has become a classic case study and a model to follow.

Image Source: Web Screenshot

In the future, I wonder how many drugs, will learn from Saproxil and go on the road to marketing 'success' ......

Are your family members, relatives or friends, using Saphris drops in their eyes?

Please let more people, know the truth behind the disease and advertising and marketing.

Content references are to Dr. Ding's science articles:"Brainwashing drug that sells 750 million dollars a year, please spare the elderly in China.

Read the full version on Dr. Ting's Headlines.

This article by Dr. Clove about Saproxil eye drops is bristling!

Lang Ping, from athletes to coaches, with the spirit of women's volleyball brought generations full of positive energy, and now need to come to the back of this eyedropper?

Let's review the ideas in this article, "Brainwashing drug that sells 750 million dollars a year wildly, please spare the Chinese elderly":

1. The only effective treatment for cataracts is surgery, and there are no eye drops available to treat cataracts;

2. Sharp & Dohme's marketing tactics have misled the public about the disease.

3. Saprox invests a large amount of money in product advertising and very little is actually spent on product research.

On the first point, there is no dissent, and I don't think any of the eye drop companies would dare deny the fact that cataracts ultimately have to be treated surgically.

Regarding the second point, the eye drop company felt that there was nothing wrong with their publicity and made a point of issuing an announcement after Dr. Ding's article came out, stating that all the advertisements had gone through the official channels and had the relevant drug advertising approval numbers.

Regarding the third point, the eyedrop company felt that the investment in advertising was a bit high, but not particularly excessive compared to some other companies in the domestic peer group.

Sapphire stock was in down mode on Monday, presumably slowed by the company's announcement.

In short, it's a war of words, but underneath the words, it actually hides a very crucial question: why is Saproxis, the eye drop, an official drug with an official batch number?

If it is just a health care product, no therapeutic effect can be mentioned in the advertisement, otherwise it is a violation of the law and will naturally be penalized by the regulatory authorities. However, the announcement of the eye drop company clearly states that Sapo-Acephalus 0.5% Bendazac Lysine Eye Drops obtained the official production approval for new drugs from the State Drug Administration at the end of 1998.

Not only did it have approval, but it also conducted a phase III clinical trial with trial design and specific names of those responsible, organized by the Chinese Medical Association and led by Beijing Tongren Hospital, the clinical trial was conducted in 17 hospitals, including the Third Hospital of Beijing Medical University, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Science and Technology, Peking University Hospital, Xuanwu Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Medical University, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Medical University, the First Hospital of Nanjing, and so on. . Conclusion: "0.5% Bendazac Lysine Eye Drops has a certain effect on delaying the onset of senile cataract and improving or maintaining visual acuity; the total effective rate was 73.73%".

The same eye drops were launched in Italy in 1983, but there was no market for them at all because they didn't work very well, so why did they make a splash in China?

Mr. Lang Ping Lang is an expert in volleyball.Lang can read volleyball, but doesn't necessarily understand itThis eye drops effect there is no question, after all, there are those 17 hospitals endorsement "total effective rate of 73.73%"! Lang Ping is more wrong than sinus!

With a little more brain power, maybe this eye drop is just the tip of the iceberg, there could be a lot of officially approved drugs that could be problematic for historical reasons.

One thing that is certain is that drugs approved after 2007 should have passed stricter standards.

After all, times move on, and historical issues, take time to resolve.

Saproxis is suspected of false advertising this matter several years ago in the medical circle has heard, this time is considered to be the old story again. The medical industry is highly specialized, so I can't comment on who is right and who is wrong as it is not within my professional scope. But judging from the information I have obtained and my past experience, I am inclined to believe Dr. Clove. If Saprox is wrongly accused, after so many years of large-scale use, it is entirely possible to come up with convincing clinical data to speak for itself.

False advertising in our pharmaceutical industry is a common phenomenon that has existed for many years. Drugs, health care products, medical care, beauty and other areas are not immune. Large to the CCTV, small to each local radio, newspapers, magazines, and now there is also the Internet, false medical advertising everywhere.

As early as in the 1990s, Chinese soft-shelled turtle essence was endorsed by the Majestic Army and became very popular in China. Later, it was exposed that a large turtle essence factory raised only one turtle, and what the manufacturer sold was only brown sugar water. So the brilliant Chinese Turtle Essence completely collapsed and disappeared from people's lives. Why do people choose to believe in such advertisements? Firstly, they believe in celebrity endorsement and reputation; secondly, they believe in the credibility of public media, the higher the level of TV stations and newspapers, the more reliable they feel; thirdly, they are brainwashed under the bombardment of advertisements.

Businessmen are profit-driven, and you can't expect that by criticizing, manufacturers will be self-conscious.

So:

1 Government departments have regulatory responsibilities.

The people are not capable of recognizing the truth or falsehood of the advertisements, then the first important gateway is that there should be advertising supervision by the relevant government departments. Should be organized in the field of relevant experts, formed a special review group, the content of the advertisements for review, where suspected of false propaganda, exaggerated propaganda, suspected of inducing, implying the efficacy of the act, should be resolutely cut off.

2 The media also have a responsibility to censor the content of advertisements.

Inaccurate advertisements damage the credibility of the media. The higher the level of the media, such as national media like CCTV, the more cautious one should be in airing advertisements. I believe that with the strength of CCTV and various local TV stations, it should not be difficult to consult medical experts. You can't just focus on economic benefits and ignore social responsibility.

3 Spokespersons should be cautious about accepting advertisements.

I can't say it's good when I haven't used it myself. Celebrities have to look at the final product to see if there is any misrepresentation of the efficacy of the product. Otherwise, if something goes wrong with the product, they will also be implicated.

4Where all the above means have failed.The people themselves had to keep their eyes open. Learn to recognize false medical advertisements.

Here's a personal summary of a few mortals:

• Anything that advocates and guarantees efficacy is not to be believed.
  

• Anyone who talks about personal cases and personal experiences is not to be believed.

• Any health product that claims to cure a disease is not to be believed.

• Where there are "old Chinese doctors", "old experts", "ancestral", "secret recipe", "biased prescription" and other words, do not believe in all of them.
  

• Anyone who claims to be able to cure multiple diseases is not to be believed.

• Anyone who claims to be "all natural" or "non-toxic with no side effects" is not to be believed.

If you do have a chronic illness, make sure you go to the hospital for treatment and follow the advice of your medical professional. Listening to advertisements and delaying treatment may lead to a lifetime of regret.

As early as 2013, Saproxil eye drops advertisements were exposed in Weibo by Cui Hongping, director of ophthalmology at Dongfang Hospital affiliated with Tongji University, for alleged false propaganda.

Sapolex (generic name Bendazac Lysine Eye Drops) is produced by Zhejiang Sapolex Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. and it is indicated in the product introduction that the product is suitable for early senile cataract. Logging into the official website of Sapoce Pharmaceuticals, you can see "Sapoce, specializing in the treatment of cataracts", "China Well-known Trademark" and other publicity words, as well as the publicity advertisements with Lang Ping as the spokesperson of the product.

Cui Hongping wrote in his microblog, "As of now, there is not a single drug in the world that can effectively treat cataracts. The only way to effectively treat cataracts is to surgically remove the cataracts and implant artificial lenses!" In fact, Saproxis has been on the "blacklist" several times for false propaganda.

According to statistics, about 2.5 million people in China use the wrong medicine every year due to misleading false medical advertisements and other reasons. Among them, there is no lack of some celebrities endorsed advertisements suspected of false propaganda. The most typical is, a certain celebrity endorsement of the mouth claimed "conscientious medicine, assured medicine" of a well-known enterprise products but the use of "chromium exceeds the standard capsule", became "black heart medicine, disturbing medicine ".

With rights come obligations. Some celebrities endorse commodity advertisements, both fame and money, but must bear the responsibility arising from false endorsement. It is understood that the revised law on the protection of consumer rights and interests emphasizes that social groups or other organizations and individuals who recommend goods or services to consumers in false advertisements are also jointly and severally liable.

Enterprises over publicize the role of drugs, false propaganda, and spend a lot of money on celebrity endorsement, the final injury is undoubtedly the most injured consumers!

Thank you, Monkey for inviting me! Greetings! I hope Chinese medicine black stand out and debate with the author! It's best to fight for 300 rounds and we'll support whoever wins. Dumb Blonde Choke! Do you remember the time when you were the Great Sage of Qi Tian returning to the Mount Huaguo after being besieged and being bitten by the Xiaotian dog? Pardon my drunkenness! These are my thoughts on the false propaganda of Saproxel! Thanks again to Big Brother Doo Wah Buddha and friends old and new!

It's so uncomfortable and unsettling to see a topic such as the one above.

My eyes when I was young, some myopia, recently fell in love with the 'headlines', often excessive eye use, feeling fatigue in both eyes, blurred vision with double vision, sometimes before the eyes present moth-like, to see the ophthalmologist, construction of my less play cell phone less look at the motor, some more closed eyes to recuperate their minds, the long-distance view, control of the eye time, Yun Yun, the eye drops prescribed precisely 'Sharp Ace'.

I lie down every morning, noon and night on a few drops of 'Sharp love', whenever the potion into the eyes, a slight sting accompanied by a cold good, fused in a piece of comfortable and cozy, the heart also constantly praise the magic of this potion, of course, nearly a month of medication, has not yet seen any significant effect, and now exposed 'Sharp love' false propaganda, it is stomach-churning.

'Saproxil' is not a fake eye drug anyway, every day to add some more drops, as soon as possible to use it up, out of sight out of mind, count me unlucky ......

This problem reflects the chaos in China's drug market.

In China's pharmaceutical market, there is a mix of prescription and over-the-counter medications. Prescription drugs, which can be purchased without a doctor's prescription at any drugstore down the street, include a wide range of hormone medications, antibiotics, psychotropic drugs, and more.

Not only that, a variety of health products under the guise of drugs, relying on the publicity of television advertisements, transformed into a kind of potent medicine, blurring the vision. However, these health products are really effective?

Take Saphris, which has been raked over the coals by Dr. Ting, this eye drop is advertised as having excellent therapeutic effects against cataracts. However, in our textbooks, treatment guidelines and clinics, the consensus of almost everyone is that the best treatment for cataracts is surgery, and the efficacy of any other medication is uncertain. So, to say that there are drugs that are effective against cataracts, especially those that are advertised and are not yet prescription drugs, I would say that's just hooliganism.

In fact, not only Saphris, but we hear and see so much more in the drug commercials we see on TV. For example, certain stomach medicines. We in the clinic, in the face of stomach acidity, stomach pain, belching, pantothenic acid and other upper gastrointestinal symptoms, generally recommended the use of rabeprazole, omeprazole and other proton pump inhibitors, or choose to use magnesium alumina carbonate and other drugs to protect the gastric mucosa. However, the advertisements of these gastric drugs, under the guise of treating stomach acid and stomach pain, but did not write down exactly which disease to treat, which is also rogue.

As for this incident will not have any follow-up, I personally hold a cautiously optimistic attitude, in accordance with the results of the previous period of time a variety of big events, it is likely that the netizens to discuss some of the after the dissipation of smoke! A lot of people say that we should improve the domestic drug entry and exit mechanism, alas, it is not an overnight success ah!

Perhaps there is room for controversy over whether or not Saphris eye drops are effective. After all, Saphris' medication is also approved. Even so, since so many ophthalmologists are questioning the efficacy of Saphris eye drops, a responsible company should redo clinical trials to prove the product's effectiveness.

There is no doubt about one thing, Saphris Eye Drops are indeed advertised in a way that is false and exaggerated.

The main ingredient in Saphris Eye Drops is Bendazac Lysine, a chemical.

Bendazac Lysine has preventive and therapeutic effects on sugar cataracts as well as early age-related cataracts, according to Saproxel's disclosure.

That said, even if Bendazac Lysine Eye Drops do have a therapeutic effect on cataracts, it is only for sugar as well as early senile cataracts, and not for all cataracts.

However, Saproxil eye drops do not make this clear in their advertising campaigns, and even seem to deliberately "blur" these restrictive words. Elderly people with cataracts can't see well, so don't expect them to be able to read the small print that is hidden in the nooks and crannies of the packaging.

As a result, cataract patients, after listening to advertisements, thought that Saphris eye drops could cure all cataracts, and that long-term use would risk delaying their condition.

The questioning of Saproxil eye drops is not a recent development, as early as 2013, a well-known ophthalmologist in China pointed out that the drug was over-marketed, which led to misleading patients' conditions. A number of ophthalmologists have made it clear that there is currently no drug in the world to treat cataracts, and that surgery is the only effective way to treat cataracts.

Are Saproxil eye drops effective? It is hoped that the authorities will intervene in this matter, after all, it is a matter of great concern for people's health.

The evidence is overwhelming.

And of course Sapiens lists its own evidence that its medicine works.

So who to believe?

An important point here is that evidence is also graded.

According to the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine's Evidence-Based Medicine Level of Evidence:

Level A evidence: randomized controlled clinical studies, cohort studies, all-or-none conclusive studies, clinical decision rules that are consistent and validated in diverse populations;

Level B evidence: consistent retrospective cohort studies, prospective cohort studies, ecological studies, outcome studies, case-control studies, or conclusions drawn from extrapolation of Level A evidence;

Level C evidence: conclusions drawn from case series studies or extrapolation of level B evidence;

Level D evidence: Expert opinion without critical evaluation or evidence based on basic medical research.

The U.S. Preventive Medicine Task Force also has an Evidence-Based Medicine Level of Evidence standard:

Level I evidence: Evidence from at least one well-designed randomized controlled clinical trial;

Level II-1 evidence: evidence from well-designed non-randomized controlled trials;

Level II-2 evidence: Evidence from well-designed cohort or case-control studies (preferably multicenter);

Level II-3 evidence: Evidence from multiple time-series studies with and without interventions. Results from uncontrolled trials with highly significant differences are sometimes used as evidence for this level;

Level III evidence: authoritative opinion from clinical experience, descriptive studies, or expert committee reports.

Whichever standard is recognized and rigorous, you see all sorts of unreliable drugs or supplements that can actually produce evidence that they work, but when you go and look at their level of evidence, it can be said to be very low, it's good enough to have animal experiments, and even a lot of what can be said to be ineffective evidence that doesn't meet the standards of evidence-based medicine, that hasn't gone through a peer-review process, and that just casually throws in a little bit of money on itself money, conducted an experiment, and came up with a so-called evidence that is totally used for commercial purposes.

If the conclusions of a random lab could be used as evidence to support a product, then cancer and AIDS, not to mention cataracts, would have been conquered a long time ago.

Don't be fooled by these things.

Of course, as far as this kind of business is concerned, he can live to this day by trickery, and definitely not by luck, on this one blow, it is difficult to create a sustained and substantial impact on it, and I hope that more media to expose this kind of business and products, to knock down one is one.

After running through the events leading up to the Sapphire incident, President AI couldn't help but wonder:On the Importance of Daily Popularizing Proper Medical Common Sense.

Saproxis has not only invited the famous sports star Lang Ping to be its spokesperson, but has also launched large-scale advertisements on CCTV.

President AI went to pick up the advertising query system of the State Food and Drug Administration, and the results showed that Saproxis had 352 advertisements for Bendazac Lysine eye drops, far more than the number of advertisements for the company's other products and far more than its peers.

More critically, the brainwashing effect of Saproxil's advertisements is comparable to that of Platinum Brain, in which it claims that it can cure all kinds of discomforts caused by cataracts:

There's also an ad that looks like it's trying to educate people about science, claiming that cataracts tend to cause blindness:

Several of the advertisements all obscure key words such as "early, senile" and do not appear in the audio of the advertisements at the same time. This is clearly a blatant attempt to mislead patients.

Industry insiders dish out data related to Saproxil:

As for the company's performance, Saphris Eye Drops generated revenues of $500 million, $660 million, and $754 million in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, with gross margins of 94.68%, 95.29%, and 94.6%, respectively. It is the most profitable product in the whole group.

On the other side of the consumer recognition of this eye drops is also quite high, ophthalmologist Cui Hongping said that his clinic a week there are about 120 people, 80 or so are cataract patients, who have used this drug 40% -50%, so many patients with this drug, a use is one or two years, two or three years. They all hope that this drug can cure the disease and avoid surgery.

As you can see, if you look at the marketing level alone, the advertising of Saproxil is indeed successful enough.

But President AI believes thatAs a pharmaceutical company, in order to revenue growth in order to lay some advertisements can be understood, but the most important thing is still in line with the patients and the community's responsible attitude, if it is exaggerated and discredited, then the end result can only be self-defeating.

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