An actual drug company ad. (May cause severe infections, cancer, seizures, death, etc....)

[zebonaut]

Or this:

Had enough of this Capitalistic Shit?

[passiveporcupine]

1. Drug ads are making the pharmcos huge profits

and yet we pay for the ads in the cost of our meds.

But they do sell product this way. Instead of your doctor prescribing a med when you need it, people go in asking for certain meds because of the ads. Take a magic pill and your life will be wonderful.

[Skeeter Barnes]

2. I have heard that their R&D budgets are just a fraction of what they spend on advertising.

One of the arguments against price controls, and I've seen it used on this forum, is that they need the obscene profits they make to invest in R&D for new life saving drugs.

[passiveporcupine]

4. I don't know how that shakes out,

but I do know they get a lot of money from the government for R&D. so we are paying for their R&D through taxes, and we pay for their advertising through high drug prices. Ridiculously high drug prices. And our government is in on it...and our trade policies probably protect them so we can't do anything about it. That may even by why we weren't able to allow the Medicare to negotiate for drug prices.

What they are doing is obscene and not safe for the public.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Big Pharma has lobbied to water down the FDA requirements for new drugs.

The frug companies decide what they want to report, and rush drugs to market with inadequate testing.
Adverse affects are not reported until enough human lab rats complain, and by that time the drug company has made billions.
We, the consumer, are now the lab rats for new drugs.
Seriously.

I have told my Doctor flat out that I will not use any drug that not at least 20 years old, and I always look up everything I can find about the drug before I even fill the script.

[tom_kelly]

6. A little off topic, but, I was at

an oncology conference in Atlanta about 10 years ago. Taking a break outside I began a conversation with a German man who was working for Merk. I asked him what percentage of Merk's R&D was dedicated to researching a CURE for cancer and after some thought he said "probably less than one percent." He went on to explain that "since cancer usually effects people at the end of their lives, we concentrate on making their remaining years as comfortable as possible."

Its what they do.

[zebonaut]

3. Ask _Your Doctor to say "NO" to Big Pharma