Released on: October 9, 2008, 2:49 am

Press Release Author: Troy Morris

Industry: Pharmaceuticals

Press Release Summary: Currently Americans spend a staggering $200 billion each year
on prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical companies try to explain that high drug
prices are necessary to fund research and development. All the while flooding the
market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no
more effective.

Press Release Body: Many Americans have wondered why prescription drugs have become
so expensive while advertising for those drugs seems to grow exponentially.
According to former New England Journal of Medicine Editor Marcia Angell the
pharmaceutical industry is fraught with corruption and doing a disservice to
customers, the federal government, and to the medical establishment itself. She
explains how a huge portion of the revenue generated by Big Pharmaceutical goes not
into research and development but into aggressive marketing campaigns to sell their
product. Meanwhile, most of the R & D work is done by colleges and universities
funded by the government and the drug companies are misleading their customers when
they claim that it costs them an average of 802 million dollars per drug to develop
new medicines. When in fact 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.

There are also problems with the drugs themselves, according to a 60 minutes
investigation, since the majority of new drugs are actually only slightly modified
versions of existing products. Consequently, the market is filled with large numbers
of near identical drugs to treat depression and high cholesterol while potentially
life-saving medicines for diseases afflicting third-world countries are discontinued
because they are considered by the manufacturers to be not profitable.

Furthermore, pharmaceutical companies often bribe physicians with all expense paid
vacations that are reported to be educational seminars, but act as paid incentive
for the doctors to prescribe certain drugs.

It is very clear that the drug companies have strayed from their original mission of
discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead have become vast marketing
machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. They have gained nearly
limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs.
The end result is unprecedented profits for the drug companies and over priced
pharmaceuticals. This is a disaster for the citizens of this country. Particularly
the elderly who struggle, and increasingly fail, to afford their prescription drugs.

Currently Americans spend a staggering $200 billion each year on prescription drugs
and the pharmaceutical companies try to explain that high drug prices are necessary
to fund research and development. However, the truth is that the bulk of their
resources are used in the marketing of products of dubious benefit and to push their
agenda through Congress and the FDA.

Finally, the Drug companies routinely rig clinical trials to make their products
look better than they are and use their legions of lawyers to stretch out
government-granted exclusive marketing rights for years. All the while flooding the
market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no
more effective.

In the book, The Truth About the Drug Companies by Dr. Angell, it is explained that
the American pharmaceutical industry can be corrected with a strict program of vital
reforms, which includes restoring impartiality to clinical research and severing the
ties between drug companies and medical education. However it does not appear that
any real change is forthcoming.





Web Site: http://bigfangifts.com

Contact Details: Troy Morris
Big Fan Gifts And Collectibles
520 Kent Dr. Ste B
Wentzville MO. 63385
314 639 6751
bigfangifts@charter.net