This review appears in the National Review. The review resists (in my opinion) to be merely an apology for the pharmaceutical industry. While I believe that Marcia Angell makes some interesting points, she does resort to hyperbole at times. Please read this review and form your own opinions – Junk-Science Reporting

BIG VILLAIN

The take-home message in The Truth About Drug Companies is this: Big Pharma is depriving poor and middle-class citizens of the life-saving, life-enhancing drugs they deserve by charging exorbitant fees – and making people choose between having food in the refrigerator, or medicine in the cabinet.

Beyond that, she opines that the industry, which describes itself as innovative and research-and-development oriented, is a case of the emperor having no clothes. Her view is that the successful drugs being marketed today are really the result of taxpayer-funded government research, which are then picked up and packaged by pharmaceutical companies who rip off the consumer a second time by charging sky-high prices. Angell believes that radical measures are justified here to accelerate the discovery of new pharmaceuticals and make drugs more accessible to everyone. In essence, she suggests the government take over the industry and treat it as a public utility.

Addressing the distortions, misstatements, and the surprising naivete of some of Angell’s statements would take another book in itself. So I will here focus on two basic contradictions and misperceptions, and then move on to briefly correct the record on seven of her main points.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE CONSUMER GOOD

First, she claims that essential life-saving medications are withheld from needy people by greedy companies, while at the same time arguing that people are unnecessarily medicated, that drugs do not work, and that those drugs that do are just copies of the ones that have been around for years.

Which is it? Are Rx companies saving lives with spectacular new drugs or not?

Second, she (like most consumers, according to national surveys) thinks drugs are different from other consumer products – that they are “entitlements.” If they exist, people have a right to them at whatever cost they can afford, if any. Angell argues, “If prescription drugs were like ordinary consumer goods, all this might not matter very much. But drugs are different. People depend on them for their health and even their lives.” She aligns herself with the views of a U.S. senator who states, “it’s not like buying a car or tennis shoes or peanut butter.”

Related posts:

1. Who watches the watchers? – more on peer review
2. Does peer review help medicine?
3. More criticism on peer review
4. Interesting book review
5. The National Review reports and you decide – in favor of drug reimportation!

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