Drug Industry
Interested in the pharmaceutical industry and its polices? Want to know more about prescription drug prices? Here are a few categories and resources that you might find helpful. Research Papers/Documentaries Big Bucks, Big Pharma (Documentary)
Big Bucks, Big Pharma pulls back the curtain on the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry to expose the insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain. Focusing on the industry's marketing practices, media scholars and health professionals help viewers understand the ways in which direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription medication, and works in tandem with promotion to doctors. Combined, these industry practices shape how both patients and doctors understand and relate to disease and treatment. Ultimately, Big Bucks, Big Pharma challenges us to ask important questions about the consequences of relying on a for-profit industry for our health and well-being. To find our more visit, http://www.mediaed.org/videos/MediaAndHealth/BigBucksBigPharma
Money Talks DVD (Documentary)
After creating Side Effects the movie, writer / director Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau felt compelled to release a second film, shedding light on the pharmaceutical industry's tactics and influence. The result is a compelling documentary. Money Talks is a straight shooting, riveting documentary that leaves Hollywood behind. The film explores drug industry influence through interviews with key opinion leaders…from Harvard, Columbia, UCLA and more. To find out more visit, http://www.sideeffectsthemovie.com/shop/
index_menu.php?page=moneytalks Healthy Skepticism, "What Everyone Needs to Know about Drug Marketing," Peter R. Mansfield
An excellent overview of issues relating to the marketing of prescription drugs by a great organization in New Zealand. it addresses brand name vs. generic drugs, the factors that make up a drug's price, patents, how drugs are distributed, and how drugs are promoted. See many more resources on drug marketing at Healthy Skepticism's website
Consumer Reports, "Best Buy Drugs”
Best Buy Drugs does for drugs what Consumer Reports has done for years with cars, dishwashers and normal consumer products. CU combines research data with national drug price information to recommend the "best buy” in specific classes of drugs. The Web site allows consumers to download information and take it to their doctor to discuss the most cost-effective treatment options.
website Drug Effectiveness Review Project
DERP is a collaboration of organizations (mostly public) that have joined together to obtain the best available evidence on effectiveness and safety comparisons between drugs in the same class, and to apply the information to public policy and related activities.
website Public Citizen, "America's Other Drug Problem: A Briefing Book on the Rx Drug Debate”
This is a valuable collection of easy-to-digest, bullet-point facts about key issues such as: prescription drug prices and company profits, research and development myths and facts, advertising budgets, tax breaks, patent extensions and political spending.
website Families USA, "Profiting from Pain: Where Prescription Drug Dollars Go”
Data gathered by Families USA demonstrate that the major pharmaceutical companies spend significantly more on marketing, advertising, and administration than they spend on R&D.
website Alliance of Retired Americans, "Profit in Pills” (2004) and "Outrageous Fortune: How the Drug Industry Profits from Pills" (August 2007)
Two excellent primers on the pharmaceutical industry and how it affects consumers, taxpayers, and the health care system.
AARP, “Trends in Manufacturer Prices of Prescription Drugs used by Older Americans"
These AARP Public Policy Institute reports present the results of studies of changes in manufacturers' prescription drug list prices (i.e., the prices set by drug manufacturers to charge wholesalers and other direct purchasers for drug products) for roughly 200 brand name and 75 generic prescription drugs most widely used by Americans age 50+.
website Families USA, “Sticker Shock: Rising Prescription Drug Prices for Seniors”
This study examines price changes for the top 30 brand-name drugs prescribed for seniors. The survey found that the prices of these drugs have increased by nearly 22 percent over the past three years.
website Consumer Union"s Prescription for Change, “The Drugs I Need” video
Satirical video that pokes fun at the drug industry.
website AARP, “Physicians' Attitudes And Practices Regarding Generic Drugs”
Report that investigates physicians' opinions about substituting generic medications for brand name drugs and their patterns of prescribing generics as well as their sources of information and perceived level of knowledge.
website Books The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It, Marcia Angell, MD (Random House, 2004)
A comprehensive and readable overview of the problems of the modern drug industry by a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Angell was interviewed in the the Summer 2004 issue of PAL News.
To purchase this book visit here The $800 Million Pill : The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs, Merrill Goozner (University of California Press, 2004)
The drug industry often claims that it costs $800 million to develop a new drug, and uses this figure to justify the high price of prescription drugs. This book picks apart that claim and uses fascinating stories of drug development to demonstrate the role that government funding has played in several key drug breakthroughs in recent decades. To purchase this book visit here The Big Fix: How the Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers, Katherine Greider (Publicaffairs Reports, 2003)
Another good and short overview of the tactics and strategies of the drug industry to inflate drug prices, by a freelance journalist. To purchase this book visit here Powerful Medicines : The Benefits, Risks, and Costs of Prescription Drugs, Jerome Avorn, MD (Knopf, 2004)
An excellent and multilayered analysis of modern drug development and economics, with extensive background on how we conclude a drug is “safe” and “effective,” by the doctor who pioneered “academic detailing,” and who is interviewed in this issue of PAL News. To purchase this book visit here Overdosed America : The Broken Promise of American Medicine, John Abramson, MD (HarperCollins, 2004)
In this highly readable book, Abramson analyzes cases such as HRT, Vioxx and the National Cholesterol Guidelines, to argue that the most “urgent problem in American medicine” is the pharmaceutical industry"s control over the creation of medical knowledge itself, through corporate influence in the research process, in the publications and clinical guidelines that physicians rely on for treatment decisions, in public policy and regulation, and in the health information available to the public. To purchase this book visit here On The Take: How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health, Jermoe Kassirer, MD (Oxford University Press, 2004)
Kassirer, the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, chronicles the pervasive greed that has infected the world of medicine, through pharmaceutical company payoffs to individual physicians and researchers, professional organizations, medical schools and research institutions, and makes recommendations for policy changes to protect against these financial conflicts of interest. To purchase this book visit here The Corporation : The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, Joel Bakan (Free Press, 2004)
Not about the drug industry as such, this book examines how the modern corporation bears a striking resemblance to a psychopathic personality, with no regard to the consequences of its actions. The behavior of many drug companies unfortunately fits into this mold. To purchase this book visit here Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, Jamie Reidy (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005)
A former #1 Pfizer sales rep presents a behind-the-scenes look at pharmaceutical sales and the most talked-about prescription drug in history. To purchase this book visit here
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