pharmer's market

This week, we moved to a new flat in Richmond (a little further down the Thames from central London), and discovered that it has a great local farmer's market.  I'm kind of a farmer's market junkie.  I like to chat up the people working the stalls and I'm always amazed by how passionate and enthusiastic they are about what they do.

I started wondering what it would be like it everyone had to put their brand or product on display in a "market" like this.  Then, my mind jumped from "farmer" to "pharma" and out popped this cartoon.

I find the explosion in direct-to-consumer drug ads facinating and more than a little creepy (particularly the embarrassing side effects).  I learned that the US is the only industrialized country in the world that allows them. 

The idea of a "pharmer's market" felt like a pretty good metaphor for the shopper-oriented drug marketplace in the US.  I come from a family of doctors and they are amazed by the number of patients who come in the office insisting on medication that they don't really need.