[.ca] The Big Fix: How The Pharmaceutical Industry Rips Off ... (ISBN 1586481851)

cogent, revealing, compelling reading:
If you've ever stood at the pharmacy counter and wondered why the prescriptions you've just picked up cost so much, this book has the answers. Big Pharma - the major drug companies - need to make big profits, and the author explains how they use the money you pay them. She does it without being sensational or shrill, instead calmly laying out the facts of direct-to-consumer advertising, pharma-sponsored conferences, pharma-sponsored research, vacations and coffee mugs and big consulting fees for doctors. I for one had no idea of the extent of their reach, and I find it shocking and enraging. Big Pharma virtually sets the health agenda, and after reading this book I have a clearer sense of how they do it. I hope our politicians pay heed, and start fixing this disaster.

Very good read:
This book is stringly recommended for anyone interested in this subject. A good site to explore is www.rxsanity.org

Sick, sick, sick:
Did you know that when you or your insurance company plunk down big bucks for your Zocor or Zoloft or Zyrtec, you're paying nearly twice as much as the French and Italians and about a third again as much as the Swedes, Swiss, Germans and Canadians? What for? If you believe the pharmaceutical industry, the high price of your prescription is supporting research that could save your life. And so it does, but not nearly to the extent we've been led to believe. In fact, as you'll learn in this well documented new book, much of that research is done on your tax dollar by Uncle Sam, with the drug companies reaping the profits at little or no expense to themselves. Your drug dollars are also paying for 625 industry lobbyists--a contingent larger than Congress itself. You're also subsidizing anti-consumer legal battles, like the one against that Maine law designed to get competitive drug pricing for Medicaid and uninsured patients that was just upheld by the Supreme Court. And all those lawsuits to prevent or stall low-priced generics from getting onto the market after patents expire. And then there's the annual $2.6 billion in consumer advertising--a tenfold increase in just a decade, and all those free samples and other rewards to doctors. Is this how you want your hard-earned healthcare dollars spent? Do you really want the pharmaceutical industry setting America's drug policy? If not, what can you do about it? Reading this excellent book is a very good place to start.

No easy answers or analysis ...:
Not nearly the insightful analysis that is claims to be, it presents a lot of the practices of the pharmaceutical industry that deserve scrutiny, including its promotional practices and focus on drugs that treat chronic vs. acute conditions, because that is where the profits are. But it doesn't address the issues of high healthcare costs. Pharmaceutical profits represent such a small fraction of healthcare costs that even if they were eliminated, total costs would go down perhaps a few percentage points. We would still have out-of-control healthcare costs. And the book doesn't adequately address the profit motivation that is needed to support innovation and has always been the strength of this great country, nor does it adequately address the economics that support how often drugs save many more dollars in healthcare costs vs. their costs, or the fact that many drugs especially generics are available at much lower costs in the US than elsewhere. Drug firms have their issues, reforming their cost structures including drug R & D and other practices is necessary, but many of the roots of healthcare costs go well beyond drug firms, and unless the whole system is addressed, to pick on one seemingly dysfunctional part will do little. Patients themselves contribute to the high-cost of healthcare by expecting free healthcare and not doing anything to take care of themselves preventively. How telling is it that many people take better care of their cars than than themselves (is this because no one else will fix our cars for free if we abuse them)? What I look at my personal experience, and how much better pharmaceuticals have made my life when I needed them, and how inexpensive they were, lifesaver is what I think, not rip-off. Bottomline, if you want some insight into some practices that could be improved without enough context to the overall structural issues in healthcare, read on. But for a more balanced debate around what really has to be done to fix healthcare costs, dig deeper.

Excellent discussion of prescription drug issues:
Despite the inflamatory title, for which I deducted one star, this book is a compelling read. Whatever side of the drug prcing and access debate you are on, you can learn from Ms. Greider's review of the core issues. She makes the issues entirely understandable and it is actually a fascinating read. What is clear is that the status quo will not stand. That is, the polical pressure and books like these will force the drug industry to either lower or slow down price increases. If not, then legislative action largely from states, will put a cap on prices through state pricing negotiations with drug companies. This book, despite the insulting title, should be read by all drug company executives. While I doubt it is a "big fix", I have no doubt aggressive drug marketing practices are not all pure and need some revisions soon.