New Book

[Guest guest]

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to

Do About It

by Marcia Angell

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Many Americans have wondered why prescription drugs have become so

expensive while advertising for those drugs seems to grow

exponentially. Former New England Journal of Medicine Editor Marcia

Angell has some answers. The pharmaceutical industry, according to

Angell, is fraught with corruption and doing a disservice to

customers, the federal government, and to the medical establishment

itself. In The Truth About the Drug Companies, Angell explains how a

huge portion of the revenue generated by " Big Pharma " goes not into

research and development but into aggressive marketing campaigns to

sell their product. She describes how, even though the drug

companies claim that it costs them an average of 802 million dollars

per drug to develop new medicines, that figure is obscenely inflated

since it factors in marketing as well as expected interest the

company would have received had they invested the money in the open

market. Meanwhile, Angell says, most of the R & D work is done by

colleges and universities funded by the government. There are also

problems with the drugs themselves, Angell indicates, since a

majority are " me-too drugs " , slightly modified versions of existing

products which meant to address concerns of consumers most likely to

spend money on pharmaceuticals. Thus, the market is filled with

remarkably similar drugs to treat depression and high cholesterol

while potentially life-saving medicines for diseases afflicting

third-world countries are discontinued because they aren't

profitable. In the books most damning passage, Angell tells of the

high-priced junkets offered to doctors, ostensibly offered as

educational opportunities that seem to constitute little more than

bribes. The prognosis for reform is a grim one, Angell indicates,

due to the massive cash reserves and lobbying efforts of " Big

Pharma. " Indeed, that lobby was hard at work trying to discredit her

claims immediately upon the book's publication. But for anyone who's

paid a pharmacy bill, The Truth About the Drug Companies is a

fascinating read. -- Moe

From Publishers Weekly

In what should serve as the Fast Food Nation of the drug industry,

Angell, former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of

Medicine, presents a searing indictment of " big pharma " as corrupt

and corrupting: of Congress, through huge campaign contributions; of

the FDA, which is funded in part by the very companies it oversees;

and, perhaps most shocking, of members of the medical profession and

its institutions. Angell delineates how the drug giants, such as

Pfizer and AstraZeneca, pay physicians to prescribe their products

with gifts, junkets and marketing programs disguised

as " professional education. " According to Angell, the cost of

marketing, both to physicians and consumers, far outweighs

expenditures on research and development, though drug makers invoke

R & D as the reason drug prices are so high. In fact, says Angell,

with combined 2002 profits of $35.9 billion for the Fortune 500's

top 10 drug companies, the drug industry is America's most

profitable by far, thanks to disproportionately high prices,

generous tax breaks and manipulation of patents to extend exclusive

marketing rights to blockbuster drugs like Prozac and Claritin.

Angell mounts a powerful case (and offers specific suggestions) for

reform of this essential industry—a case worth bearing in mind

as " big pharma " continues to oppose importing cheaper drugs from

Canada.