Lauren Bacall, for instance, in conversation with Matt Lauer on the Today show, spoke about a friend who had become blind from macular degeneration. She urged the audience to get tested for it and mentioned the Novartis drug Visudyne. What she did not reveal is that she was being paid by Novartis. (117)

Our policy requires authors of Original Articles to disclose all financial ties with companies that make the products under study or competing products. In this case, the large number of authors and their varied and extensive financial associations with relevant companies make a detailed listing here impractical. Readers should know, however, that all but one of the twelve principal authors have had financial associations with Bristol-Myers Squibb—which also sponsored the study—and in most cases, with many other companies producing psychoactive pharmaceutical agents. The associations include consultancies, receipt of research grants and honorariums, and participation on advisory boards.” (143)

* All marketing costs, whether they’ve tucked away under categories such as administration or education matter because these costs are passed on to the patients, who pay higher and higher prices (Angell, Chapter 3).
* “Me, too” drugs and “off-label” uses of drugs result in patients paying much higher prices for a new drug that offers no appreciable benefits or using a drug, for a non-FDA approved purpose, that may accomplish nothing at all (Angell, chapter 5).
* The decreased amount of rigor in some clinical trials and evident in some medical articles help to keep drugs on the market – such as Vioxx, which was shown to cause heart attacks and strokes – that are dangerous (Angell 270).
* Pharma companies often divert research money to create useless or duplicate drugs when this money could be spent finding cures for serious diseases. However, if a useless drug can bring in billions of dollars, what is the incentive for pharma companies to create drugs that provide smaller revenues?