The Drug Rep Conspiracy

What a pleasure it has been to discuss this issue with you. Thank you for your time and informed opinions.

Here's some factoids for you, courtesy of the September Harper's Index.

1) Amount pharmaceutical companies spent on R&D per new drug launched

in 1997: $868 million

last year: $1.43 billion

2) Minimum number of prescription drugs currently under investigation for Medicaid price-gouging or marketing fraud: 500

3) Percentage markup that Abbott Laboratories charged in 2001 on solutions of sodium chloride (salt water): 20,735

4) Amount allocated for investigating health-care fraud in 2003 that the FBI cannot account for: $114 million

With R&D cost per drug brought to market of nearly $1.5 billion, its easy to see why doctors get the hard sell, and so many 'incentives'. The stakes, and potential profits, are so high, the drug companies will stop at nothing to keep their products flowing.

The FBI can't even keep track of the funds allocated to investigate the rampant abuses, with hundreds of drugs under investigation.

In other news, wolves have now become sheperds, leading the lambs to slaughter.