Liberals are wrong to think that opposition to health reform is a rejection of big government. If health reform consisted of extending Medicare to everyone, people would be delighted. There are millions of 64-year-olds out there who can hardly wait to be 65.
Marcia AngellBrand-name drugs have no competition, since the government grants them very long, exclusive marketing rights.
Marcia AngellThe United States is the only advanced country that permits the pharmaceutical industry to charge exactly what the market will bear, whatever it wants.
Marcia AngellA review of seventy-four clinical trials of antidepressants, for example, found that thirty-seven of thirty-eight positive studies [that praised the drugs] were published. But of the thirty-six negative studies, thirty-three were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome.
Marcia AngellPharmaceutical companies have too much influence over the education of physicians in this country. They have too much control over the evaluation of their own products, and that's a conflict of interest. I think the industry needs to be regulated, but I've never suggested taking it out of the market altogether.
Marcia Angell