ABOUT THE BOOK

 

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us, and What to Do About It

 

FROM THE PUBLISHER

During her two decades at The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the growing corruption 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 with and increasingly failed to keep up with spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this new book, Angell exposes the truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become - and argues for essential, long-overdue change.

FROM THE CRITICS

David Tuller - The Washington Post

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It, by Marcia Angell, a former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, provides the broadest overview and the most thorough context. Her voice is always authoritative, sometimes testy and often brimming with anger and frustration at what she views as drug-company shenanigans.

Janet Maslin - The New York Times

Dr. Marcia Angell is a former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine and spent two decades on the staff of that publication. If much of that time was devoted to reviewing papers on pharmacological research, it must have been spent in a state of near-apoplexy.

Her new book is a scorching indictment of drug companies and their research and business practices. "Despite all its excesses, this is an important industry that should be saved - mainly from itself," she writes.

Publishers Weekly

In what should serve as the Fast Food Nation of the drug industry, Angell, former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, presents a searing indictment of "big pharma" as corrupt and corrupting: of Congress, through huge campaign contributions; of the FDA, which is funded in part by the very companies it oversees; and, perhaps most shocking, of members of the medical profession and its institutions. Angell delineates how the drug giants, such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca, pay physicians to prescribe their products with gifts, junkets and marketing programs disguised as "professional education." According to Angell, the cost of marketing, both to physicians and consumers, far outweighs expenditures on research and development, though drug makers invoke R&D as the reason drug prices are so high. In fact, says Angell, with combined 2002 profits of $35.9 billion for the Fortune 500's top 10 drug companies, the drug industry is America's most profitable by far, thanks to disproportionately high prices, generous tax breaks and manipulation of patents to extend exclusive marketing rights to blockbuster drugs like Prozac and Claritin. Angell mounts a powerful case (and offers specific suggestions) for reform of this essential industry a case worth bearing in mind as "big pharma" continues to oppose importing cheaper drugs from Canada. Agent, Martel Agency. (On sale Aug. 24) Forecast: Time called Angell one of the 25 most influential Americans, and with the high cost of drugs making front-page news, her book should find a receptive audience. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

With the recent controversy over Medicare reform for prescription drugs, there couldn't be a better time for a coherent book on the state of the pharmaceutical industry. Angell, the former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, offers an impassioned expos of how money is really spent by this gigantic and immensely wealthy industry. Angell looks at the role of academia in drug research, how the FDA is impacted by the industry, and how pharmaceutical companies influence medical education and research. She devotes a large part of her book to an analysis of recent U.S. legislation that, while well meaning, has actually been a tremendous financial boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Angell concludes with practical suggestions on how the industry and our governmental policies can be reformed to bring the profits of this necessary industry to a more reasonable level. Every registered voter should read this book; highly recommended for public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 4/1/04.]-Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida at St. Petersburg Lib. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Number of Reviews: 3    Average Rating: out of 5 stars
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A reviewer (lfrench@stlawu.edu), Dr. Larry G. French, December 23, 2004,1 out of 5 stars

Does Random House Uitlize Peer Review?

The big pharma companies are easy to beat up on. Why? most of us pay out of pocket for some or most of these services. Docs escape a critical eye because we as a society do not worry about wasting this limited resource as insurance picks up the tab. Hell, we don't even complain about sitting on hold for an hour or more for a 10 min. appointmnet. I did medicinal chemistry research for my PhD and now teach organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry at a liberal arts college in NY. I read this book expecting balance - I was mistaken. The public's general chemophobia and scientific illiteracy is easy to parlay into a revolt against a chemical based industry which has done more to improve the quality and longevity of life as any. I have a few questions and requests for the good doctor. 1.How may new drugs have Stanford, MIT, Caltech and the Ivy's brought to market in the last 50 years? (or NIH for that matter). 2. Is it not somewhat satisfying that an economic superpower, who otherwise brings up the rear as far as per capita expenditures on third world development and aidis concerned, can at least contribute by paying what the market will bear for pharmaceuticals? 3. There are many valid concerns given voice in your book. Why not work behind the scenes and with your compatriots in the medical profession to rectify these and advance the public welfare, rather than resorting to hyperbole and fear to sell books? 4. Please actually speak with some patients who have had their lives transformed by advances in psychopharmacoligical agents. You exude a Ludite-like disdain for this area of medicine. 5. Look again at the reasons for Phase 4 testing and post market surveillence. Hopefully one day genomics will allow a quick and economical way of finding the 1 in 500,000 patients who are endanger of an untoward effect associated with use of a pharmaceutical. Until then, this is the only option available.

B.T. O'Neill, a concerned citizen, September 17, 2004,1 out of 5 stars

Jeopardizing the future of medicine

I can’t believe that the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine would know so little about the discovery of drugs and would jeopardize the future of medicine by publishing this book. As a pharmaceutical researcher for 22 years, I have to say I am appalled by many of her claims. A pharmaceutical company brings together numerous scientific disciplines under one roof to create molecules that are tested as possible treatments. The work is challenging, frustrating, expensive but occasionally rewarding. If you look on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) web site you will see that our government doesn’t agree with assertions that taxpayer money is the key driver in drug discovery. In 2001, Congress requested the NIH evaluate the extent to which taxpayer funding had been involved in discovery of novel drugs. NIH responded that of forty-seven FDA-approved drugs that sold over 500 million dollars in 1999, the NIH has patent rights to only four. Furthermore, all four were co-developed in a partnership with a major pharmaceutical company that also invested millions of their dollars in clinical studies and paid royalties to the NIH. The recently published clinical studies of Merck’s Zocor and Vioxx, which illuminated deficiencies in their profile compared with other members of their class, show how important it is to have multiple drugs within a disease area. The clear differences among so-called “me-too drugs” should be explained rather than exploited as she does in this book. As an M.D., Dr Angell should be helping researchers get the message out to a scientifically illiterate public who will depend on medical break-throughs in the future. She has let all of us down.

Mike.nyc (mrbarr@medscape.com), Repentant 'med ed' professional, August 25, 2004,5 out of 5 stars

former NEJM editor 's revolutionary manifesto ROCKS!

Dr. Marcia Angell puts the full punch of her 20 years as New England Journal of Medicine editor behind this riveting and hard-hitting analysis of all that has gone wrong (and why) with the U.S. pharmaceutical industry over the past 20-odd years. Tracing the origins of this deleterious detour to a rash of pharma friendly legislation during the Reagan years (and continuing through both the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations), her tour-de-force analysis combines extensive research and illuminating case studies with an impassioned fervor that cannot fail to leave you asking, 'Where do I sign up?' In the final two chapters she summarizes both the problems we're up against as well as her prescriptions for reform. Several of them, such as her call to repeal both the 1992 Prescription Drug User Fee Act and the 2003 Medicare reform bill, are certain to ruffle more than a few feathers. For anyone who is troubled by the out of control greed, corruption and hypocrisy of this vital industry, Angell's book is a user's guide, a call to arms and a must read all in one.

Also recommended: Merrill Goozner: “The $800 Million Pill: The Truth Behind the Cost of New Drugs”; David Healy: “Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression”