Quoted message said:Vaccinated Than Ever
From: [email hidden] (David Wright)
Date: 8/3/2003 12:33 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id: <[email hidden]>
<snip>
Quoted message said:That's the AMA, JG. I was looking for something coming from, let's
say, Merck. And please don't respond that the AMA is merely acting in
the service of the drug companies unless you have evidence.
There is PLENTY of evidence.
In 2000, the drug manufacturing industry spent $15.7 billion promoting drugs,
with $5 billion -- or 33 percent of all promotional dollars -- spent on
promoting products to doctors, according to the American Medical Association.
Pharmaceutical companies spend more than $11 billion each year to promote and
market drugs -- an estimated $8,000-$13,000 per physician per year. This money
is often spent on free samples for physicians to hand out to their neediest
patients, but is also given in the form of meals and entertainment.
A recent study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit health
research organization, found that a majority of physicians reported they have
been given meals, tickets to events or free travel for either seeing
pharmaceutical sales reps or using their products.
Lashing Back at Drug Companies
Sunday, July 27, 2003; Page B06
Robert D. Novak [op-ed, July 17] raised the specter that drug companies will be
deprived of research funding that "scored victories over heart disease,
diabetes, cancer, polio and other maladies" if the law about importing drugs is
changed.
But Americans have had enough of drug price gouging, and the drug companies are
not the only players responsible for wonder drugs and cures. Drug and medical
research is a public-private partnership from which all should benefit fairly,
not just the pill-pushers.
For example, Jonas Salk's breakthrough polio vaccine research was funded from
public contributions to the March of Dimes. Each year the public contributes
billions to help find cures for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other
diseases. The American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society
collect yearly about half a billion dollars each in contributions, a
significant purpose of which is to fund research. Additional billions in public
monies are spent on medical and pharmaceutical research through the federal
budget funding of the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.
In addition, while the drug companies trot out the shibboleth that they need
high prices to continue to fund high levels of research, the public is
realizing that these companies spend a great deal on promotional and marketing
activities -- including, presumably, the massive campaign contributions to
Congress.
It's not difficult to understand why the public resents the drug companies when
prices in the United States for critical medicines are often two, three or four
times higher than the prices for the same medicines, made by the same
companies, sold in Canada, Mexico and other countries.