Big Pharma

Last year, the pharmaceutical industry had sales in excess of $300 billion. Clearly, we all pay in one way or another — whether by buying drugs directly or through taxation. But it is less clear if we are getting value for our money. Author Jacky Law shows how a small number of corporations have come to dominate the global healthcare agenda. She reveals a system in which the relentless pursuit of profit is crowding out the public good. Effective regulators are under intense pressure from corporate lobbies, and companies spend more money on marketing than they spend on research and development. Meanwhile, the cost of new drugs rises relentlessly, while the number of original new products declines. All is not well with modern medicine. In what is both a diagnosis and a recommended course of treatment, Big Pharma reveals a world where market considerations, not medical need, are determining the research agenda. The author points to a future where the public and the medical profession once again have a voice in the kind of healthcare we want — and the healthcare we pay for.

Jacky Law has written about healthcare for 25 years. For seven years she worked as an editor at Script magazine, a monthly international pharmaceutical title. She left in 2004 to write Big Pharma.