The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It
Written by Marcia Angell, M.D.
Narrated by Kate Reading
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
During her two decades at The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry. She watched drug companies stray from their original mission of discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead become vast marketing machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. She saw them gain nearly limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs. She sympathized as the American public, particularly the elderly, struggled and increasingly failed to meet spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become-and argues for essential, long-overdue change.
Currently Americans spend a staggering $200 billion each year on prescription drugs. As Dr. Angell powerfully demonstrates, claims that high drug prices are necessary to fund research and development are unfounded: The truth is that drug companies funnel the bulk of their resources into the marketing of products of dubious benefit. Meanwhile, as profits soar, the companies brazenly use their wealth and power to push their agenda through Congress, the FDA, and academic medical centers.
Zeroing in on hugely successful drugs like AZT (the first drug to treat HIV/AIDS), Taxol (the best-selling cancer drug in history), and the blockbuster allergy drug Claritin, Dr. Angell demonstrates exactly how new products are brought to market. Drug companies, she shows, routinely rely on publicly funded institutions for their basic research; they rig clinical trials to make their products look better than they are; and they use their legions of lawyers to stretch out government-granted exclusive marketing rights for years. They also flood the market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no more effective.
The American pharmaceutical industry needs to be saved, mainly from itself, and Dr. Angell proposes a program of vital reforms, which includes restoring impartiality to clinical research and severing the ties between drug companies and medical education. Written with fierce passion and substantiated with in-depth research, The Truth About the Drug Companies is a searing indictment of an industry that has spun out of control.
Related to The Truth About the Drug Companies
Related audiobooks
Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Breakthrough to Blockbuster: The Business of Biotechnology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary, Analysis & Review of Ty Bollinger's The Truth About Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Drugs, Money, and Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Doctor Will See You Now: Essays on the Changing Practice of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Antidote: Inside the World of New Pharma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe End of the Beginning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCode Blue: Inside America's Medical Industrial Complex Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Price of Health: The Modern Pharmaceutical Industry and the Betrayal of a History of Care Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Strange Trips: Science, Culture, and the Regulation of Drugs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Curable: How an Unlikely Group of Radical Innovators Is Trying to Transform our Health Care System Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Asthma Solved Naturally: The Surprising Underlying Causes and Hundreds of Natural Strategies to Beat Asthma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCancer and the New Biology of Water Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cancer Revolution: A Groundbreaking Program to Reverse and Prevent Cancer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cancer Code: A Revolutionary New Understanding of a Medical Mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Corporatizing American Health Care: How We Lost Our Health Care System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRedefining the Boundaries of Medicine: The High-Tech, High-Touch Path Into the Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: The Real Anthony Fauci Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCuring the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, 3rd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here Be Dragons: One Man’s Quest to Make Healthcare More Accessible and Affordable Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDying Green: A Journey through End-of-Life Medicine in Search of Sustainable Health Care Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOptimizing Your Health: An Approachable Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Industries For You
Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All The Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of "The View" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All You Need to Know About the Music Business: 11th Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisney's Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Fentanyl: Ending the Opioid Epidemic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Real Food, Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mind Your Mindset: The Science That Shows Success Starts with Your Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom of Prep: The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sam Walton: Made in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Artpreneur: The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living From Your Creativity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Burn Book: A Tech Love Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for The Truth About the Drug Companies
38 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It’s quite informative, but the structuring of this book is quite unorganised and the examples are repetitive. I think the book should be written in a more concise and organised form.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breathtaking, thorough , detailed , thought provoking and worth every minute
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thank you for the writing this book. I just wrote a 4-5 paragraph review, but Scribd erased it. Will have to come back and write it again soon.
This is one of the most informative, important books that I have read in years.