The Pharmaceutical Industry Controversy

The pharmaceutical industry and its practices of testing, safety, and marketing have been a controversial topic among U.S. citizens. In the United States, pharmaceuticals are the most government regulated products, yet there is still no regulation on the cost of prescription drugs. The prices of medication can go up overnight if the company chooses, which I believe to be unfair and unethical. If a pharmaceutical company that manufactures something considered to be "life-saving", then I think they should be required to increase the price in smaller increments over time instead of one lump sum. Pharmaceutical companies have faced many controversies as of late. From lawsuits against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to the huge price hikes on crucial medications, ultimately leading to a congressional hearing against the CEO of Mylan, the company that produces the EpiPen. The outragous price increase of the EpiPen in particular has stirred up a lot of controversy in the media lately. But the EpiPen isn 't the only drug that has gone up in price. Certain medications for cancer and …show more content…
The pharmaceutical companies also control the trials of the drugs they manufacture. In the book titled "Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients." published in April 2014, the author Ben Goldacre states; "When trials throw up results that companies don 't like, they are perfectly entitled to hide them from doctors and patients, so we only ever see a distorted picture of any drug 's true effects.", (Goldacre, x). According to the book, three researchers from Harvard and Toronto found trials of five major drugs where they were funded by the government to only be 50% positive and trials funded by the companies were 85% positive. It appears that when the companies fund the trials they have more positive results because they have the option to withhold negative