Overview
Pharmaceutical companies make important life-saving medicines. But that
shouldn't give them license to drive up drug prices, ignore the risks
of harmful side effects, or block needed reforms in Congress and the
states. Consider:
• Pharmaceutical companies use direct-to-consumer ads to sell their
latest, most expensive drugs. The industry claims that these ads help
to educate consumers, but a U.S. PIRG analysis of FDA records for the
years 2001-2005 found that the ads for 150 different drugs were false
or misleading.
• Merck, the manufacturer of Vioxx, continued to market its painkiller
to doctors and patients years after the company had substantial
evidence of increased the risk of heart problems. FDA researchers
estimate that, in less than 5 years, Vioxx may have caused as many as
139,000 heart attacks and strokes.
• The industry continues to use unscrupulous marketing techniques to
influence prescriptions that doctors write, including fancy meals,
travel junkets and money-in the form of "consultant" fees.
• More than 3 million seniors are falling into the doughnut
hole-Medicare's prescription drug coverage gap. Seniors have to keep
paying their monthly premiums, but Medicare does not pay for their
drugs until seniors pay $3,600 in out-of-pocket expenses for their
medicines. When Congress created the Medicare prescription drug
benefit, the pharmaceutical industry and its lobbyists inserted a
provision that prohibits the program from negotiating bulk-rate
discounts for drugs.
Ohio PIRG is working to require drug companies to fully disclose
studies and information about the safety and effectiveness of their
drugs, to enable the FDA to better crack down on misleading drug
advertisements, to rein in inappropriate gifts to doctors, and to allow
Congress to negotiate drug discounts for the Medicare program.
