A few months ago, the pharmaceutical industry has been thrown around too carelessly numbers to justify the exorbitant prices of its products. To develop the "industry-standard" $ 800 million of a new drug had $ 1.3 billion bloated (probably due to non-existent inflation), but some digging around in the same record produced a very different number: $ 35 million. Sure, that 's not just "run around' money, but it 'sa lot easier to recoup your investment if you don' t overdo it by $ 1,260,000,000th

Some more devastating numbers have popped up in a post on rational arguments, which show that the pharmaceutical company 'inflated R & D costs pale in comparison to what they really spend their money. The first article draws numbers from the Fortune 500 list of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies (turnover) and takes some (unfortunately) not surprising results:

The companies spent a whopping $ 41000000000 for research and development. That 'sa lot of money. But it 's much less than the $ 49000000000 (18%) in the profit made. Just so you know, the average Fortune 500 company in 2008, 0.9% of turnover into profit. Thus, in a recession, pharma has very, very good. [The] pharmaceutical companies spent 83000000000 $ for marketing and administration. That 's more than twice as much as they spent on research and development. That 's an incredible amount.

So it is 'sa little disingenuous to claim that Americans must continue to fund as much R & D spending if you cut in order to either gain (large) and to marketing and administration (which is gigantic) could make. R & D just isn 't as big a piece of the pie. It 's plenty of fat in there before research and development to trim.

And why drug companies spend so much on marketing? It 's simple, really. You 're not the creation of new drugs . (Yes, that seems like a really idiotic statement, but read on ...)

From 2000-2007, 667 new drugs were approved by the FDA. Of these, only 75 (11%) of new molecules that are much better than what we already had. Were in fact over 80% of all approved drugs are not better than what we already . These are "me-too 'drugs. Why are the pharmaceutical companies have so much on marketing? Because You have to really promote drugs that really has no advantage over others that already exist . You have to convince people to buy them.

They know what needs no promotion? Awesome new drugs that save lives. When was the last time you saw a commercial for chemotherapy? For adrenalin? For steroids? These drugs do not need promotion - doctors only know to use it. But I bet you all know about Nexium. Or Cialis.

Add to this the fact that pharmaceutical companies are now helping to help themselves to medical records "manual" Doctors 'decisions and you' ve got a cyclical nightmare that increases costs, while almost nothing for the health and well-being of their customers.

If you 'managed ve, your unbelieving rage (and what you eat digested the last time) is suppressed, here \ keep' \ s more evidence dismissal Pharma 's eternal claim on what' s left in your wallet.

The stage musical Economist has a follow-post by Aaron Carroll (who wrote the previous post on rational arguments), detailing yet more evidence that the pharmaceutical industry lies blatantly when they are their high prices of their R & D investment legitimate claims. The twist here is that these companies do for the most part, aren 't even their own R & D. (By clicking on an informative and highly irritating graph. The colors are beautiful, but ...)

The majority of research has been cited in the patent applications performed in academic centers. Some others were carried out in other non-profit or government research centers. Only 15% of the research was conducted by the industry. That 's not a very convincing argument for the indispensable role of industry in the research.

Carroll quotes another study, this one performed by Public Citizen in 2001, which showed that "U.S. taxpayer-funded researchers conducted 55 percent of the published research projects leading to the discovery and development of these drugs (and foreign academic institutions 30 percent)." In fact, drilling down even further into the data reveals that only one in seventeen papers come from the industry itself .

What we 've got is an industry research (and money) on the other its profit margins stay right where he wants to use his. Even worse, she retains to the Government, with a fur lined pimp hat in hand, looking for more money, more patents, patent extensions, and more control over the medical community. Who is looking after the pharmaceutical "Community" an answer to their health problems in a world of hurt very literally. The industry doesn 't seem to mind if you' re chronically ill. It is simply hates to lose paying customers. How the death and stuff. And so it is reducing costs and increasing prices and trying to find the perfect balance between lifetime medical care and the local morgue.

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