The Truth About the Drug Companies

How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It

By: Marcia Angell

Narrated by: Kate Reading

In this explosive expose of the drug companies and how they are ripping us off, Marcia Angell, M.D., a doctor, medical journalist, and a former editor of the respected New England Journal of Medicine, reveals the many ways in which the pharmaceutical industry has moved away from its original purpose of finding and producing useful new drugs.

Now primarily a marketing machine that produces drugs of questionable benefit, the industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt such institutions as the US Congress, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), academic medical centers, as well as the medical profession. In spite of a lack of innovative drugs and continuously growing prices, the drug companies invest most of their time and money in marketing, legal maneuvers to extend patient rights, and government lobbying to prevent price regulation.

©2004 Marcia Angell (P)2007 Books on Tape Inc.

Critic reviews

"A searing indictment.... Angell mounts a powerful case (and offers specific suggestions) for reform of this essential industry." (Publishers Weekly)

"Pharamceutical companies will need a new miracle pain reliever after the whipping they receive from Marcia Angell in her book...a starting point for serious discussion." (The Hartford Courant)

"If youve ever suffered prescription-drug sticker shock, Dr. Marcia Angell's The Truth About the Drug Companies is the book for you." (Newsday)

Pronunciation

This is a very important book. Something needs to be done about our pharmaceutical industry. But the narrations is poor. It's presentation is difficult at times to listen to due to terrible pronunciation. Birch Bayh is called Bay instead of By and due to his legistation's importance, it is repeated many many times. Bona Fide is called bona fidEE. And many more. Don't readers have producers? Does anyone correct these?

True 10 years ago and still true today.

Would you listen to The Truth About the Drug Companies again? Why?

Yes. As a healthcare researcher this was an eye-opener into how pharma did business and still does today, even if a little less openly than before. As a person who had studied cases of pharma misconduct in the last few years I was surprised to learn from this book about the same practices 10 years ago. Nowadays, Ben Goldacre et al are still talking about these issues. I just wonder when it will end and truthfulness and transparency prevail?

Good read, vital information

I listened to this audio on a long trip to Virginia, it kept me awake and alert. I found the audio quite statisfactory, and the information clear and easy to understand. I was too engrossed by the subject to be concerned about pronunciation. It seems we all must be our own advocates considering the current state of our health system. Dr. Angell's description of how the drug industry uses powerful marketing and questionable research is indeed important information.

Good information that should be spread further!

Few stories in the book were known to me before my reading, yet its so much better to know the entire big picture and see all pieces of the puzzle put together.

Currently the pharmaceutical industry and the economy as a whole has so many ailments, which should and can be cured. Each of us can help with the cure by sharing this knowledge. Some of the things mentioned in this book, is not just wrong, but outrageously wrong.

The narrator is excellent. Its hard to be distracted from her. She knows best all the points to stress, or to lighten up!

Definitely recommend!

Screed Against the Pharmaceutical Companies

Having worked in the pharmaceutical contract research industry, I have observed that for the most part the author's fundamental complaints about the pharmaceutical industry are correct. The public desperately needs to know about how the industry has gotten out of control. Its greed is now a major drain on the health and wealth of the world, but most particularly that of the United States. This book is an excoriating expose of the industry.

For at least my taste, this book would have been much better if it were not so much a one-sided rant. The invention, development, and marketing of pharmaceuticals is complex and requires trade-offs. The author tends towards going over the top about about the sins of the drug companies and sees only what's bad. There's lots of sin to write about. But there's not a hint of balance to the author's work. A more reasonable presentation, with a little more perspective on why the drug companies see things as they do and act as they do, would have made the author's arguments more compelling and her book more interesting.

The author's tone is exacerbated by the reader's tone, which is chronically scolding. It's not pleasant to listen to hours of scolding. Further marring the performance is that reader mispronounces several key names that are important to the story and are repeated many times, such as the name of Senator Birch Bayh.

The author's fundamental points are critically important and should be widely known. For just that fact this book is worth reading. But the message will probably not become more widely known until it is delivered by a better author.

It's a stinger missile at luxurious coporate jets

Well written, well analyzed, and a total indictment about the greed and corruption that is these corporate greedy @$$holes. It really is unbelievable, well I take that back, it is totally believable that the U.S. consumers have been taken for such huge suckers, especially with this medicare prescription drug benefit. It makes you wonder at the real underlying problem, and that is just who do the politicians in Congress work for?

This book is eye opening.

Research the Drugs You Take

There have been many shocking pharmaceutical scandals, like the price hikes of EpiPens, over-prescribed opioids, and recalls of drugs known to have adverse effects. This book explains how big pharma can get away with such mercenary practices. The beginning of the book is a little dry with the use of a lot of scientific and financial terms to explain that big pharma companies would not be cutting into R&D if they lowered their prices. They are spending more on marketing than R&D, which can be cut if they weren't pushing their expensive drugs onto the public. If you take any medication, this book will lead you to question whether you were prescribed the appropriate drug or even if you should have been prescribed that drug at all. Big pharma companies have labeled natural conditions as diseases. Children are no longer rambunctious; they have ADHD. Women no longer go through menopause; they have a hormonal imbalance. People no longer have bad days; they have mild depression. And guess what the solution is - drugs.

The truth about the drug companies

Best book I ever read! I am a nurse practitioner and I can't tell you how enlightening this book is, every medical professional should read it, in addition to the rest of the world! It has certainly changed my prescribing practices.

Very informative and eye opening!

I appreciate the author doing real research and brave enough to write a book on it!

wonderful

This book is thorough, informed, and courageous. Still very much relevant today. I highly recommend.