I agree with David. Open your eyes and see the disgusting truth! Big Pharma will sink its’ own ship. The Democrats are coming and change will sweep into Washington. Read it and weep!

Don’t forget that the prices charged by many utilities are indeed regulated. As for oil, we know that the heartless oil companies have been gouging Americans since the 1970s when they put on their fake “oil crisis.” As for food, many people receive food stamps or other assistance. For God’s sake, with pharmaceuticals we’re dealing with people’s health and lives!

By the way, if you’re in R & D, you have no idea about how dirty the commercial side can be. Read the papers! Check the fines! They’re corporate gluttons whose beastly hunger for money can never be satisfied. They’d sell their own mothers if they thought they could make a profit. They’re heartless bastards!

From your (very brief) description of your career, it seems evident that you clearly have well-qualified opinions about revamping marketing. However, you have had no experience in R&D. When you have a few years of R&D management experience under your belt, then we’ll talk about revamping R&D efforts. Till then you are just blowing smoke about an area you obviously know very little about.

By the way, you keep restating that medicine is not a consumer good. People HAVE to take drugs — they have no choice. Well, Ok fine. Then it’s not a consumer good. Niether is electricty, water, sewar, oil or food. Lets make all necessities of life controled by government agencies. Oh wait… the Soviets already tried that and failed…

I think that the Big Pharma companies should take all of the money that they spend on their misguided DTC campaigns and pump it into charity programs to provide much-needed medications to the poor of this country and the rest of the world. Perhaps the poorest of the US are covered by medicaid, but there are very many working poor and elderly people that simply cannot afford medications that they need. I’ve practiced medicine and been in pharma. I’ve seen people suffer needlessly and I’ve seen the Big Pharma hogs slopping at the trough. I simply don’t believe that any corporation should benefit exorbidantly off of other people’s illness. In my mind, this applies to physicians, hospitals, HMOs, PBOs and Big Pharma. Big Pharma is the 2nd most profitable industry in the world. I think that the government should treat them like utility companies as they sell neccesary goods. BTW, the physicians and hospitals have already been squeezed in the name of healthcare, so why not Big Pharma? i think that prices should be set by the US government like they are in most of the rest of the civilized world. The operating word is “reasonable” - prices and profit. Do you know that prescription drug prices are up 7-8% in the past year? paying for the same drugs, not new ones.

As for the expectations of the “Street”, utilities do fine in the market - not outrageously, but well. If investors came to expect it of all pharma companies, then they get used to it. After all, it is for the common good.

As for pharma marketing, you can throw most of those fast-talking crooks out the window and they wouldn’t be missed. Let them use their tactics on soda or beer sales -something that people don’t really need for their health! They’re mucking up pharma!

Apology accepted, Thank You.

I included you because you said that BPW’s words were music to your ears. If I misinterpreted your comment, my apologies.

Atlex

You have me stumped!!

My credentials are very appropriate for what I do for a living. I can tell you that I have over 18 years experience in the business. In top companies and had a very successful and proadly ethical career. But I fought hard to make that happen for me.

I can tell you that I have witnessed some good drugs come out of research. I can tell you I have seem bad things come out and that this didn’t seem to stop us in marketing… I can tell you I have seen some really good drugs come out and actually have a dramatic positive impact on peoples lives. Unfortunately I have also witnessed the greed of the folks higher up the food chain allow marketing practices for some fantastic products that backfired and caused irreprable harm to the brand and product identity.

WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT CONSUMER GOODS! Patients do not Choose to take drugs, they are mandated to do so by their doctor who they are supposed to trust. I am not going to re-state this.

To your point number 3 - if you were really paying attention to what I have stated you would realize the fallacy in what you are saying.

I agree with the others who have chimed in on this thread.

Yeah, I have experienced an awakening and I am speaking out. I have no “sacred cows” to protect anymore.

Now I am dating myself, but lets think back to the man on the moon mission. When we really want to do something - we can. It was a great time to be a scientist back then. We had a clear goal/objective and we collectively worked on the solution together and we really achieved something great for humanity. The government had really deep pockets and made sure that we were funded. We can do this with diseases like cancer, like AIDS, like diabetes. I see only hope and the potential for our future.

Yes, there are many failures. I could have a lot to say about that, but some other time…

“Some men see things that were and ask - Why? I dream things that may never be and say Why not?” - RFK

C’mon Nathan step outside the box…

How much would you propose the industry give away? $1B, $5B, 10B? I know of 1 company that gives away more than $1B in product every year. Is that enough? What is enough. I’m not trying to be heartless at all. There are absolutely social obligations that all companies, particularly health care companies, should meet.

You say that we have an obligation to provide cheaper drugs to the poor and uninsured. Shouldn’t insurers then have the obligation to provide coverage for the uninsured? Then, shouldn’t all physicians be required to treat a certain number of the uninsured?

I’ll ask similar questions regarding price. How much lower of a price would meet with your approval–5%, 10%, 25%, 50%? I’m fairly confident that no matter what it was, it wouldn’t be enough.

Another fallacy built into your and other’s arguements is that pharma says we need high prices to support research and development. However, that is not only reason. The way capital markets work in the US and other capitalistic countries is that ROIs are expected to be related to risk. High risk industries are expected to have much higher rates of return for investors in order to make up for the high risk and long investment cycles (the years it takes to bring a drug to market). If pharma doesn’t have high returns, investors will take their money elsewhere. Then, there is a signficant impact on innovation. The impact may not be felt today, but in the LT it would be felt.