Books for Prep | |
by: Marcia Angell  List Price: $15.95 Amazon.com's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 615 EAN: 9780375760945 ISBN: 0375760946 Label: Random House Trade Paperbacks Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 319 Publication Date: August 09, 2005 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Release Date: August 09, 2005 Studio: Random House Trade Paperbacks Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: 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. Amazon.com Review: Many Americans have wondered why prescription drugs have become so expensive while advertising for those drugs seems to grow exponentially. Former New England Journal of Medicine Editor Marcia Angell has some answers. The pharmaceutical industry, according to Angell, is fraught with corruption and doing a disservice to customers, the federal government, and to the medical establishment itself. In The Truth About the Drug Companies, Angell explains how a huge portion of the revenue generated by "Big Pharma" goes not into research and development but into aggressive marketing campaigns to sell their product. She describes how, even though the drug companies claim that it costs them an average of 802 million dollars per drug to develop new medicines, 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. Meanwhile, Angell says, most of the R & D work is done by colleges and universities funded by the government. There are also problems with the drugs themselves, Angell indicates, since a majority are "me-too drugs", slightly modified versions of existing products which meant to address concerns of consumers most likely to spend money on pharmaceuticals. Thus, the market is filled with remarkably similar drugs to treat depression and high cholesterol while potentially life-saving medicines for diseases afflicting third-world countries are discontinued because they aren't profitable. In the books most damning passage, Angell tells of the high-priced junkets offered to doctors, ostensibly offered as educational opportunities that seem to constitute little more than bribes. The prognosis for reform is a grim one, Angell indicates, due to the massive cash reserves and lobbying efforts of "Big Pharma." Indeed, that lobby was hard at work trying to discredit her claims immediately upon the book's publication. But for anyone who's paid a pharmacy bill, The Truth About the Drug Companies is a fascinating read. --John Moe Average Rating:
 Rating: - worthwhileYes, it's somewhat repetitive but there's valuable information here, offered by someone who was immersed in the industry for many years. It's just a pity that the only readers of this book are likely to be the already-converted. Everyone should know this information, as well as that contained in similarly worthwhile books like Selling Sickness, Dirty Medicine, Racketeering In Medicine, The Great Cholesterol Con, Heart Frauds, How to Protect Your Heart from Your Doctor, Confessions of ... Read More Rating: - Read this!The pharmaceutical companies are not in the business of curing sickness and disease. If they were they would not spend a great portion of their money on marketing and buying influence in Washington D.C. Big pharma is all about keeping people chronically sick, thus creating their own customers. If this sounds conspiratorial, read this book and learn the truth. Pharma is after one thing, and that is increased profits. If they were to provide cures, rather than maintenance drugs, they would slowly ... Read More Rating:  - Good diagnosis but poor therapyIn "The Truth about the Drug Companies" Dr. Marcia Angell exposes key practices fed by drug company funds that corrupt medical care, particularly distortion of results from clinical trials and several forms of inducements for physicians to prescribe drugs. A bias soon becomes evident and carries thoughout the book: condemnation of drug companies compared with a light hand toward their physician partners. Dr. Angell's writing is direct and clear, but the book's fact-checking and editing ... Read More Rating:  - An eye opening book which aroused my interest in the whole fieldIt is a book that made me sacrifice my sleep time. I spent just a weekend to finish it. Easy to read to a laymen, with lots of examples and explanations. No wonder it is a bestseller. The book reveals the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry. The book is filled with arguments and viewpoints, supported with facts. As such, it presents its side of the story. Though some viewpoints may be too much or too critical, and inconsistent with market economy, I still find the book as a whole convincing. ... Read More Rating: - axe to grindDr. Angell seems to have a serious axe to grind in writing this book, but then again nearly everyone who writes a book has an axe to grind to some degree. She's right that the large drug companies have become heavily involved in marketing, their drugs are very highly priced in the United States, and they do produce many "me-too" drugs. To some degree, though, this is par for the course for any big company that is trying to protect its interests in a highly competitive market. It may be that the industry will ... Read More 
In association with Amazon.com | |