8. Drug companies are reliable, honest, and ethical and always think of what's best for the patient.

• Using America's senior citizens as funnels, drug makers will take in over $200 billion in new drug sales; and because the program will be administered by private companies, hundreds of billions more will go to HMOs and private indemnity plans offering drug-only coverage. (June 20, 2005 - Scoop.co.nz)


• The pharmaceutical industry was by far the most profitable in 2001, topping the other 47 listed industries - whether profit is measured as a percentage of revenues, assets or of shareholders' equity. (June 9, 2005 - Mediamatters.org)


• To the physician who was the No.1 prescriber of Vioxx in the region, Merck marketing rep awarded a pair of Philadelphia season tickets. (July 29, 2005 - Washington Post)


• There could be as many as 200 to 250 pending federal and state lawsuits against drug manufacturers alleged to have cheated Medicaid. The total value of claims could be as high as $25 billion. (June 29, 2005 - LA Times)


• American Drug Companies and their lobby groups are using needless scare tactics to dissuade US citizens from purchasing their medications from Canadian pharmacies by claiming they are unsafe. (PRWeb - May 24, 2005)


• Alabama is suing 79 drug companies for alleged dirty dealings involving hundreds of millions of dollars the state paid for prescription drugs. The suit alleges that for the past decade or more drug companies have inflated their wholesale prices, sometimes by more than 50,000 percent. (January 28, 2005 - Montgomery Advertiser)


• Manufacturers and state pharmacists inflated the price of prescription drugs in a multimillion-dollar fleecing of taxpayers, state officials led by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. “We are talking about huge numbers of dollars. The magnitude if abuse here in dollar terms, loss to taxpayers and health-care efforts lost to participants, is absolutely staggering,” said Blumenthal. (July 20, 2005 - Connecticut Post)


• Big pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars on drugs that have harmed thousands of people in Michigan, leaving them with lifelong disabilities, overwhelming medical bills and, sometimes, the loss of a loved one. (September 13, 2005 - Lansing State Journal)


• Drug companies have connived to do everything they can think of to capture the attention, allegiance and gratitude of physicians. And they have been able to think of quite a lot. (American Scientist Online - December 22, 2004)


• The problem continues with the numbers of drug sales reps saturating the market. In 1993, there were 35,000. In 2002, there were 89,600. There are more reps than doctors in America, and the $8 plus billion in manufacturers' research and development expenses includes the cost of drug reps taking doctors on trips, hosting lunches, dinners and win tastings, limousine rides to and from, and even the occasional baby shower. (Journal Record Oklahoma City July 16, 2004)


• Bristol Myers Squibb Co. is paying $150 million to settle a major alleged accounting fraud as federal regulators accused the company Wednesday of manipulating its inventory of drugs to inflate earnings and meet Wall Street targets. (Associated Press August 5, 2004)


• The problem continues with the numbers of drug sales reps saturating the market. In 1993, there were 35,000. In 2002, there were 89,600. There are more reps than doctors in America, and the $8-plus billion in manufacturers' research and development expenses includes the cost of drug reps taking doctors on trips, hosting lunches, dinners and win tastings, limousine rides to and from, and even the occasional baby shower. (Journal Record Oklahoma City July 16, 2004)


• Bristol Myers Squibb Co. is paying $150 million to settle a major alleged accounting fraud as federal regulators accused the company Wednesday of manipulating its inventory of drugs to inflate earnings and meet Wall Street targets. (Associated Press August 5, 2004)


• New York City has filed a lawsuit against the nation's leading pharmaceutical companies, accusing them of deceptively inflating the cost of their drugs and defrauding taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars. (The New York Times August 6, 2004)


• A recent report out of the inspector general's office in the federal Health and Human Services Department found that drug companies repeatedly overcharged public hospitals and clinics. In a single month, it said, the overcharges amounted to $41.1 million. ( The Journal News July 12, 2004)


• An Alabama charity hospital has sued Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer Inc. and other drug companies, accusing them of overcharging indigent health-care providers by $500 million for outpatient prescription drugs.


• Eight employees of TAP pharmaceutical products of Lake Forest, Ill., are on trial in U.S. District Court, charged with offering hefty consulting fees, resort trips and educational grants to doctors to increase sales of the prostate cancer drug Lupron and the heartburn drug Prevacid. (Associated Press July 6, 2004)


• In 2001, the pharmaceutical industry spent more than $2.5 billion on TV, radio and print ads, and spent an additional $9.4 billion on its pharmaceutical sales representatives who give out some $10.5 billion worth of free samples and perks to doctors, all of which contributes to increased drug prices. (Savvy Senior August 7, 2004)


• The New York Times reported that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) increased its lobbying budget for fiscal year 2003-2004 by 23% to at least $150 million. (Alliance for Retired Americans)


• Pfizer Inc. has agreed to plead guilty and pay $430 million US in fines to settle charges that its Warner-Lambert unit flouted U.S. federal law by promoting non-approved uses for one of its drugs. (Winnipeg Free Press May 14, 2004)


• GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. has agreed to pay $92 million to settle lawsuits accusing it of misusing patents to thwart generic competition of the antibiotic drug Augmentin. The antitrust lawsuits were filed after a U.S. judge in Norfolk ruled in May 2002 that Glaxo patents covering Augmentin were invalid because they did not contain any new inventions. The suits accused Glaxo of misusing the patent system to protect a monopoly on a drug that once accounted for 7 percent of its annual sales. (Bloomberg News July 9, 2004)


• Forty five million people, 15.6 percent of the US population were without health insurance during 2003. (Detroit Free Press - August 27, 2004)

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