Scandals have eroded US public's confidence in drug industry

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Letter to British Medical Journal on line

Re: Scandals have eroded US public's confidence in drug industry:bmj.com, 30 Jul 200

The former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine, Marcia Angell, currently a senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School, disputes pharmaceutical companies' argument that they need a high profit margin to fund the research and development of new medicines. Dr. Angell contends the industry piggybacks off publicly funded research at the United States' National Institutes of Health and other academic institutions, that most of the companies' profits are not derived from new drugs, but rather from "me too" drugs, or imitations of drugs already on the market.(United States Public Broadcasting System, "Frontline" interview, November 26, 2002)

Ten of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturers are part of the fortune 500. According to Dr. Angell in a recent New York Review article, they generate more money than the remaining 500.

It is not just the high cost of drugs that contribute to the financial squeeze on U.S. and Canadian medicare. The hidden costs of drug caused adverse reactions and fatalities seem not to be part of the accounting. Drug induced nutrient depletion (of which many physicians are apparently unaware) exacerbates patients' symptoms which lead to the prescribing of more drugs and more symptoms. This is further compounded when physicians tell their patients not to take any vitamins.

The supreme insult to the U.S. public has now emerged with the Bush Administration's proposed legislation that would give the drug companies immunity to law suits by the victims of their products. Grounds for such immunity is justified the drugs are approved by the government's Food and Drug Administration. Presumably the government (meaning taxpayers) must then assume all liability.

Croft Woodruff

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