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I'm fairly sure most drug companies now spend more on marketing than on R&D/testing.



If you're going to parrot Marcia Angell, at least get the substance right: They spend more on marketing and administration than they do on R&D. Where "administration" is stuff like IT, HR, etc.


I've never read her work, so I'm hardly parroting her. IIRC I've read about this in a few news articles about pharma finances, and in Ben Goldacre's "Bad Pharma". I don't know whether the marketing/sales figures include administration, but it does appear to be true, and I'd be inclined to think it's bad...


Most drug companies sell generics because they don't want to enter costful R&D game.


Or they try to prolong their patents or very slightly change the formula of an existing drug so they can patent it again: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_drug#Prolongation




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