The Truth About the Drug Companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7470.862

BMJ 2004;329:862 (9 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7470.862

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The Truth About the Drug Companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Dr Marcia Angell, a member of Harvard Medical School's Departmentof Social Medicine, has written a painstakingly researched bookon the wiles and ways of what has come to be called "big pharma."It is a clear exposé of the American drug industry andis written in the impassioned but impeccable prose we expectfrom a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Marcia Angell

Random House, $24.95,pp 336 ISBN 0 375 50846 5 Also available as an ebook, $17.95www.randomhouse.com

Rating: $*$ $*$ $*$ $*$

Angell says that $200bn (£110bn; ${euro}$ 165bn) is spent annuallyon prescription drugs in the United States. With the cost rising12% a year, it is the fastest growing part of America's swollenhealth bill. In 2002 the average price of the 50 commonest drugsused by elderly people was nearly $1500 for a year's supply.At, say, six prescriptions—not an uncommon number amongelderly . . . [Full text of this article]

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Fred Charatan, retired geriatric physician

Florida charatanf@bellsouth.net

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