The Truth About the Drug Companies

The Truth About the Drug Companies
Author :
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages : 354
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780375760945
ISBN-13 : 0375760946
Rating : 4/5 (946 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Truth About the Drug Companies by : Marcia Angell

Download or read book The Truth About the Drug Companies written by Marcia Angell and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2005-08-09 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During her two decades at The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry. She watched drug companies stray from their original mission of discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead become vast marketing machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. She saw them gain nearly limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs. She sympathized as the American public, particularly the elderly, struggled and increasingly failed to meet spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become–and argues for essential, long-overdue change. Currently Americans spend a staggering $200 billion each year on prescription drugs. As Dr. Angell powerfully demonstrates, claims that high drug prices are necessary to fund research and development are unfounded: The truth is that drug companies funnel the bulk of their resources into the marketing of products of dubious benefit. Meanwhile, as profits soar, the companies brazenly use their wealth and power to push their agenda through Congress, the FDA, and academic medical centers. Zeroing in on hugely successful drugs like AZT (the first drug to treat HIV/AIDS), Taxol (the best-selling cancer drug in history), and the blockbuster allergy drug Claritin, Dr. Angell demonstrates exactly how new products are brought to market. Drug companies, she shows, routinely rely on publicly funded institutions for their basic research; they rig clinical trials to make their products look better than they are; and they use their legions of lawyers to stretch out government-granted exclusive marketing rights for years. They also flood the market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no more effective. The American pharmaceutical industry needs to be saved, mainly from itself, and Dr. Angell proposes a program of vital reforms, which includes restoring impartiality to clinical research and severing the ties between drug companies and medical education. Written with fierce passion and substantiated with in-depth research, The Truth About the Drug Companies is a searing indictment of an industry that has spun out of control.


The Truth About the Drug Companies Related Books

The Truth About the Drug Companies
Language: en
Pages: 354
Authors: Marcia Angell
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-08-09 - Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

During her two decades at The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry.
The Truth about Big Medicine
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Cheryl L. Brown
Categories: Health & Fitness
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015 - Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This title drills deeply into the broken American health care industry--demonstrating how the medical industry's self-serving interests have run afoul of safe c
The Truth About Big Medicine
Language: en
Pages: 257
Authors: Cheryl L. Brown
Categories: Health & Fitness
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-12-05 - Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many Americans believe that their healthcare is second to none. Most patients, therefore, fail to appreciate the flaws and dangers present while receiving medic
Bad Pharma
Language: en
Pages: 479
Authors: Ben Goldacre
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014-04 - Publisher: Macmillan

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Originally published in 2012, revised edition published in 2013, by Fourth Estate, Great Britain; Published in the United States in 2012, revised edition also,
Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime
Language: en
Pages: 251
Authors: Peter Gotzsche
Categories: Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-08-21 - Publisher: CRC Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS ARE THE THIRD LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AFTER HEART DISEASE AND CANCER. In his latest ground-breaking book, Peter C Gotzsche exposes the pharmac