New England Journal of Medicine attacks pharmaceutical industry Anyone who reads the New England Journal of Medicine knows that this publication derives almost all of their advertising revenue from prescription drug advertising. That's what makes their blunt editorial against the pharmaceutical industry so credible. Drug companies state that they need high prices to develop new cures and better treatments. But Angell argues that many of the new drugs that companies produce add little to therapeutic innovation except expense and confusion. The answer is very few.
Some people say none.
The New England Journal of Medicine editorial depicts the industry as one in which top companies rake in huge profits, spend enormous amounts on questionable marketing and advertising practices and are free to charge inflated prices as a result of government-sanctioned monopolies. The pharmaceutical industry is extraordinarily privileged. Dr. Angell said that she is speaking out because the prices of drugs are rising so fast and the use of drugs is so great that it's becoming a real problem for consumers. She also worries that the ongoing Congressional debate on a Medicare prescription drug benefit has largely focused on who will pay and the breadth of coverage instead of the price of the drugs themselves. According to this article, the pharmaceutical industry is not delivering the kind of breakthroughs that were once promised.