Home › Blogs › John Poikonen's blog ›

Review on The Truth about Drug Companies: What To Do About It

Submitted by John Poikonen on Sat, 01/23/2010 - 10:29
Here is a really good book review with alternative views.   I tend to lean to the side of Marcia Angell, living in a socialist dream world in the confines of Havid Yaad.  

For a time I worked for a former VP of Merck. He indicted that regardless what the annual report says the margins for brand name drugs are in the high 90% range.  At one point he did a hour long tie-rate on the subject with graphs filling up an entire white board.  It was a classic.

In a related story today - Kudo's to Partners Healthcare and The Brigham for sticking to their principles in giving a physician an ultimatum: stop speaking for Pharma or quit the hospital.  He quit.  Of course making $99,375 in three months is decent pay, if you can get it.  Here is a link to the story. 

For a free copy of the report/review below use the code "TRUEFREE".  Thanks to the bloger/tweeter superstar BERCI.

The Truth About the Drug Companies: What To Do About It 
By John Mack (Bio)

SUMMARY

You can't go to a pharma industry conference these days without hearing at least one expert speaker recommending that pharma executives read the book "The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to do About It," written by Marcia Angell, MD, former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine. It's not often that you see pro-industry pundits recommend a book that "tears pharma a new one," as some would say.

Richard Vanderveer, Chairman & CEO, V2 GfK and an advisory board member of this newsletter said "This book has a lot of buzz going for it. Industry executives should read it defensively and be ready to answer questions at cocktail parties. I am a firm believer in counteracting bad press."

This review includes several point-counter point views regarding Angell's arguments by pharmaceutical and healthcare experts, including members of the PHARMA-MKTING online discussion group.

The article includes the following sections:

  • Kudos from Pundits
  • What Are Her Points?
  • Research vs. Marketing
  • Education vs. Marketing
  • Tough Years Ahead?

Posted via email from RxDoc.Org

User login

What is OpenID?

Who's online

There are currently 0 users and 12 guests online.

Recent comments