Advertisement: For sinus pain, three out of four hospitals give their

Remember that we are looking for the answer choice that most seriously undermines the advertisement's claim -- we do not need to prove that the advertisement's claim is false. It is enough to show that one answer choice undermines the argument more seriously than the others.

The advertisement argues that Novex is the most effective medication for sinus pain, and the evidence supporting this argument is that three out of four hospitals give their patients Novex. (C) directly undermines the relationship between the evidence and the conclusion by providing an alternate explanation for prescribing Novex -- namely, the low cost of the drug. This doesn't prove that Novex is not effective, but that is not our task. (C) casts doubt that the evidence presented in the passage supports the conclusion, which undermines the argument as a whole.

(B), on the other hand, does not directly undermine the argument. The following questions are raised when considering (B):

• (B) states that "many" hospitals only prescribe Novex to patients who cannot tolerate another drug. How does this number of hospitals stack up against the "three out of four" cited in the argument? To choose this answer choice as the most serious weakener, we need to assume that this number is non-negligible, and there is no information to support this assumption.
• Why do these hospitals not prescribe Novex to other patients? To choose (B) we need to assume that this decision is based on the efficacy of the drug, instead of some other factor (like price). Again, there is nothing to support this assumption.

While (C) doesn't prove that the advertisement's claim is wrong, it does cast serious doubt that the evidence cited in the passage supports the argument's conclusion. (B), on the other hand, would require several unsupported assumptions to cast doubt on the argument. For this reason, (C) most seriously undermines the argument and is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

IMO C.

The reason that Novex is so popular has to do with something other than its effectiveness? I immediately thought low cost and low and behold, it was one of the answers.

A --out of scope
B --tells us nothing about its effectiveness...tolerance is out of scope
C --Weakens argument
D --so what
E --this supports not undermines the argument

3 of the 4 hospitals use Novel.

Conclusion: Novex is most effective.

Weaken it. Note that we have to weaken that it is most effective. We need to say that it may not be the most effective but hospitals may be using it for some other reason - quickly available/easy to administer/cheap/no side effects etc.

(A) Some competing brands of painkillers are intended to reduce other kinds of pain in addition to sinus pain.

Irrelevant

(B) Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use.

The 1 out of 4 hospitals that do not use Novex use say Medicine X usually.
These hospitals use Novex in cases where patients cannot tolerate Medicine X.
What does this tell us about Novex? Just that in some cases, patients tolerate Novex though they do not tolerate some other medicines.
Does it have anything to do with effectiveness of Novex? No.

aritrar4 - if you assume that a hospital will give the most effective drug first, and 3 out of 4 hospitals give Novex, then Novex is the most effective (as per the judgment of the hospitals). Then how can we weaken it anyway?
We can make no such assumption. There could be any number of reasons a hospital/doctor may prescribe one medicine over another. A doctor may prescribe even a costlier medicine over a cheaper brand only because the manufacturer gives him free tickets to a play! Think of economy as it is - not as it ideally should be.

(C) Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford.

By selling at cheaper prices, many manufacturers increase the sales of their products. So hospitals buy more of those products which are available at a cheaper price. This could be the reason 3 out of 4 hospitals use Novex. Hence it weakens our conclusion. It brings in doubt in our mind about the reason why most hospitals prescribe Novex. It tells us that in the decision of the hospitals about which medicine to give, other factors are at play.

(D) Unlike some competing brands of painkillers, Novex is available from pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription.

We are talking about hospitals giving the medicine to their patients, not what patients may take themselves.

(E) In clinical trials Novex has been found more effective than competing brands of painkillers that have been on the market longer than Novex.

Strengthens that Novex is more effective.

Answer (C)

For weaken questions I follow the strategy that first i identify the conclusion and then look for ways on what are the other ways in which the conclusion can hold ( without the given premise)

In this question Conclusion - Novex should be used in as the most effective painkiller in Sinus
Premise - 3/4 hospitals use Novex for sinus pain.

If we can somehow think of other ways as to why Novex is used ( without thinking of the hospitals answer , we hit the nail there)

(A) Some competing brands of painkillers are intended to reduce other kinds of pain in addition to sinus pain.
- Talks about other kinds of pain , irrelevant in the conclusions context.
(B) Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use.
- This answer choice tells us that hospitals will use Novex for patients who cannot tolerate the drug that the hospitals usually give.
Again does not help our conclusion.
(C) Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford.
- This answer choice states that because of ulterior motives of hospitals ( that they have the drug at very low cost) , the drug Novex is used by hospitals and not because its very effective. Bingo
(D) Unlike some competing brands of painkillers, Novex is available from pharmacies without a doctor's prescription.
- Irrelevant in the context of the conclusion , talks about getting the medicine from pharmacy.
(E) In clinical trials Novex has been found more effective than competing brands of painkillers that have been on the market longer than Novex.
- Again irrelevant in context of the conclusion.

Hope this helps
Kudos me if you like the post !!!!!!!!

Reviving the question thanks to VerbalBot

Hi AndrewN and VeritasKarishma, I'm reaching out to you for some assistance on this weakener question. I'm confused between options B and C, and here's why.

(B) Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use.
I assumed here that the drug that is generally used by the hospitals is the most effective one, but for patients who cannot tolerate that drug, the hospitals are bound to give them Novex. Thus this makes Novex a less effective drug and thereby weakens the conclusion. The alternate logic mentioned in some of the other posts is that maybe the other drug that is primarily used by the hospitals is not as effective as Novex, but are used for other reasons, maybe its cheaper. Is it the right assumption to make that a hospital will not use the most effective drug for a reason that it is costlier than a lower performing drug?

(C) Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford.
This statement generalizes all drug manufacturers and not just the ones manufacturing Novex. So, sure, we can assume that Novex is supplied to the hospitals at a cheaper price and so hospitals use it even if it is not the most effective drug, but it could be true for other drugs as well. Manufacturers of those drugs can just as easily supply them to the hospitals at a much cheaper price. So I felt that this argument also did not weaken the conclusion effectively.

Please let me know your thoughts, thanks for your help !

Note the language of the argument:
For sinus pain, three out of four hospitals give their patients Novex.

This is what happens currently. For sinus pain, 75% hospitals give Novex (which means they usually give Novex for sinus pain)
Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex (perhaps the other 25%), will (in future) use it for patients who cannot tolerate other drugs (so Novex perhaps is well tolerated)
Does it weaken our conclusion? It doesn't impact the 'effectiveness' one way or the other.

(A) Some competing brands of painkillers are intended to reduce other kinds of pain in addition to sinus pain. => out of scope
(B) Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use. => Strengthen the effective of Novex
(C) Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford. => Make Navex available in the almost all of hospital, weaken the reasoning of Navex's effective
(D) Unlike some competing brands of painkillers, Novex is available from pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription. => in pharmacies, not in hospital, out of scope
(E) In clinical trials Novex has been found more effective than competing brands of painkillers that have been on the market longer than Novex. => In some related field, this choice strengthen.

Correct answer is C

Hello, aritrar4. I understand your concerns about this these two answer choices. Rather than rehash what GMATNinja has already said, I would urge you to read or reread both of his posts above. To add my own thoughts to your analysis, the first two words of what you wrote for (B) say a lot: I assumed. You do have to assume that hospitals use the most effective drug for sinus pain for (B) to work, that Novex is a substandard backup used only for patients who are intolerant of the best drug for that purpose. That assumption does not lie at the heart of (C). There, your point about equal applicability of the statement to any drug is just the point. Since any drug could be sold cheaply, for all we know, to hospitals, the mere fact that three out of four hospitals give their patients Novex cannot be used as a premise to support the conclusion that Novex is the most effective painkiller for sinus pain. There is simply no relationship that can be established between these two isolated pieces of information, and the answer takes far less in the way of making assumptions to justify.

I hope that helps. Thank you for thinking to ask me about this tough question.

- Andrew

An alternative reason is not the correct answer to every question.

In this case we have to cast doubt on the idea that Novex is the one to choose. In a way (D) does the opposite, by providing a reason to choose Novex.

okay. I am putting my explanation to those who didn't choose option C as answer.

Premise: For sinus pain, 3 out of 4 hospitals give Novex. that is 75 % hospital use medicine Novex as pain killer.
Conclusion: Novex is the most effective pain killer.

We need to find something that will weaken conclusion 'Novex is the most effective'. Without looking at the option, if you would question, why Novex is not most effective even 75% hospitals use this medicine ?
There could be below possibilities.
1. Novex is used everywhere because, it is abundantly available.
2. The most effective pain killer may not be affordable to most of the patients.

Now going through the options
(A) Some competing brands of painkillers are intended to reduce other kinds of pain in addition to sinus pain. Argument talks only about sinus pain.
(B) Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use. Argument talks about effectiveness and not tolerance.
(C) Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford. Yes. Most of hospitals use Novex because it is easily affordable to everyone. It may not be the most effective.
(D) Unlike some competing brands of painkillers, Novex is available from pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription. No one will use any medicine that is sold without prescription knowing that it is not effective.
(E) In clinical trials Novex has been found more effective than competing brands of painkillers that have been on the market longer than Novex. It strengthens the argument.

Let me try to help you on this.


This option says that the drug manufacturers often sell their products to hospitals at a very low price. Why do they do this?? Answer:-They want to increase sales and hence increase their revenues.

Hospital will buy Novax because for them there is a profit.Ex:- Novax C.P earlier was 10$ and S.P was 20$. Net profit to hospital 10$

After getting at lowest price from manufacturer, suppose new CP=5$ and SP is 20$. Here net profit is 15$.

Hospital will now sell Novax more in order to gain more profit. This is the reason why 3 out of 4 hospitals are recommending Novax.

Does that mean in Sinus Pain we should take Novax??
This is weakening our assumption that we should take Novax just because 3/4 hospitals are recommending Novax.

The hospital is motivated by the profits and hence is recommending Novax.


I hope that helps!

The question asks us to undermine (weaken) the argument.

Conclusion: Novex is the most effective painkiller for sinus pain.
Premise: Hospitals use it.

(D) Tells us about availability, but the conclusion is about efficacy. If Novex is available everywhere, that doesn't tell us anything about whether it works. If it's only available from a leprechaun at the end of a rainbow, that doesn't tell us anything about whether it works. Either way, we haven't done anything to undermine the argument.

FWIW, I wouldn't like D even if the question were to strengthen the argument, but if I had to bucket D into whether it strengthens or weakens, I'd certainly choose strengthen. Be careful that you are paying close attention to what the question asks!

The issue with (D) is that it's about a different way to get painkiller: "from pharmacies."

Notice that the support for the conclusion is not about what hospitals "recommend," as you said. Rather, it's about what hospitals "give" directly to their patients. So, what's involved in getting drugs from pharmacies is not part of the situation mentioned and thus does not affect the support for the conclusion of this argument.

Conclusion: Novex is the most effective.
Evidence: Three out of four hospitals use Novex.

(B) Many hospitals that do not usually use Novex will do so for those patients who cannot tolerate the drug the hospitals usually use.
Many hospitals, no matter how unwillingly to use Novex at first, finally give some patients this drug, a fact suggesting that these hospitals belong the category of three out of four. If that is the way to achieve Novex appearing on the list of majority hospitals—the fact used in the ad as evidence supporting the conclusion, we're standing on the solid ground that this glittering number, though true, is misleading, as many ads do in reality, and should be questioned.

(C) Many drug manufacturers increase sales of their products to hospitals by selling these products to the hospitals at the lowest price the manufacturers can afford.
Any drug manufacturers can sell their products at the lowest price they can afford, if this price war works. Then we have two different scenarios:
1. Novex is cheaper than competing brands. Yes, it helps explain that three out of four hospitals use Novex not because of its effectiveness. Price matters.
2. Competing brands are cheaper than Novex. Why hospitals choose Novex without considering the price, when so many cheaper alternatives are available. The price doesn't matter anymore, or is it because Novex is more effective?
So, option (C) is flawed.

This question was retired long ago for some reasons.

How is B incorrect? It states that hospitals are forced to prescribe Novex. It could be that the the drugs which are unbearable could be more effective than Novex. Pls correct me if I am wrong.

GMATNinja



Hi Charles, it feels both B and C require assumptions. For C, we can say just because the manufacturer is selling the drug at low prices does not mean that it is not effective. Even best products adopt such marketing strategies. B at least indicates that hospitals are not using the drug as first preference.

Could you help dispel the doubt.