The Big Fix: How The Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off American Consumers

by Katharine Greider

As the pharmaceutical industry invests more and more in the development of new drugs, true breakthroughs are few and far between. Into the breach comes a panoply of product-line extensions and me-too drugs aimed at grabbing market share. The industry plows its high profits back into research, but invests an equal or greater sum in flogging its products in every imaginable venue. Research studies are designed to support marketing claims. Many doctors all over the country get their first information about new drugs from a salesperson. And, increasingly, prescription drugs are pitched to consumers on TV and the internet with images of hope, terror, or chic. Evidence-based practice guidelines, which endeavor to get the right medicines to those who will benefit most, can't be heard over the din.

Having created an unprecedented number of "megabrands" -- blockbuster drugs with huge sales -- and undergone an extraordinary wave of consolidation, some drug companies now find themselves in a precarious position. Patents are expiring on flagship products. In order to sustain the growth Wall Street has come to expect, these companies must produce billions of dollars worth of new revenue -- fast. But can Americans continue to bankroll Operation Grow Big Pharma? Must we swallow the bad with the good?

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jef Sneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ten years is a long time in the modern medical economic landscape of the United States. So much is happening all the time, yet this book, published in 2003, still resonates with many truths about the pharmaceutical industry and how it works - how it relates to doctors and how it manipulates lawmakers and regulators. If you are looking for the big picture, you'll get it here.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was going to be more of a revelation, but two things got in the way. First, it's out of date--it was written before Medicare Part D was written into law, or the new healthcare law and attendant debates. While it must be satisfying to the author for her predictions to have been proven correct, for the 2011 reader, it just results in the urge to yell, "Yes, it will! No, they won't! They've already gotten to that point!" a great deal.

Second, the pharmaceutical companies have actually gotten worse, which makes some of her biggest revelations about R&D and marketing practices seem anticlimactic. It's probably also not in her favor that I consider myself pretty well educated on this subject, so there really wasn't anything in the book that I hadn't already heard somewhere else. Then again, maybe the reason I heard it is because it came out of media coverage of her book. In any case, it's a good starting place for someone who's a newcomer to this topic.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative & interesting. Out of date? Yes. & while I don't agree with chemical cures, this does shine a bright light on our ignorance towards advertising & how gullible we are to believe "authority".