The Illusion of Innovation Something Is Rotten

The Illusion of 'Innovation': "Something Is Rotten in the State of British Medicine"

An analysis of newly-approved drugs in France from 2002 through 2011 found that most drugs were copies of old ones with molecules changed here and there. And the reason for that is that these drug companies spend 19 to 20 times the amount on marketing than they do on research and development.

And if you look at the therapeutic value of all these drugs, only 8% were deemed to have a noticeable benefit or better, 76.4% had little or no added value and 15.6% were found to do more harm than good.

Dr. Aseem Malhotra added this comment which perfectly captures the net impact of the pharmaceutical industry on society.

"What's the overall net effect of the pharmaceutical industry? Certainly in the last few decades, it's very clear, it's been negative ... And who's paying for it? We are paying for this! The taxpayer is paying for this. You've got big corporations making all this money — they also don't pay their taxes. So it's almost like we've got a system which steals from the poor and is giving to the rich, and you wonder why society is disintegrating."