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.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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