Fwd: [PATHO-L] Innovation/Regulation in pharmaceuticals
Bryan Bishop
From: Dwight Oxley <DOX...@pol.net>
Date: Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 11:32 AM
Subject: [PATHO-L] Innovation/Regulation in pharmaceuticals
To: Pathology Discussion Group <pat...@mailman.srv.ualberta.ca>
To clarify a potentially confusing argument raised here recently, the
U.S. pharmaceutical industry is already highly regulated, and has been
so for many decades. Their excellent record of innovation has,
therefore, occurred in a highly regulated environment. Regulating the
drug industry is not a new idea, and clearly has not made that
industry unprofitable. We need an innovative drug industry, and
operating profits are necessary to make that work. But since we the
people, through our taxes, pay for a large proportion of the drugs
prescribed, some accountability and transparency is in order.
According to a recent summary, drugs account for 13.3% of U.S. health
care costs (physicians are 4.8%). The pharmaceutical industry spends
18.2% of their sales income on marketing. For comparison, retail
spends 3.4%, telecom 3.0%, and the automotive sector 2.3%.
(Source: Nagarkar PA, "Getting money out of doctors' offices", The
Pharos, Winter 2010, pp. 13-17. The author is a physician in Dallas.)
Dwight Oxley, MD
Wichita, Kansas USA
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