This from McClatchy (Seattle Times). More in the NEJM here.
Note the increase in prescription spending between 1999 and 2009; their excess profits; and contributions to political campaigns.
Drug companies spend more on marketing and advertising than research the result is price increases:
- “By the end of 2005, the cost to taxpayers for a Plavix prescription filled by a Medicaid patient rose 25 percent beyond the more modest rate of inflation that would have been expected before advertising began.”
Medicynical Note: Only the U.S. and New Zealand allow such ads. They should be stopped as they are misleading and costly. Alternatively, advertisers should disclose all side effects and costs/month of the medication along with a standardized disclosure of efficacy and the fact that alternative approaches are available.
Medicynic 