Big Pharma: Private prot before public health

Authors

  • Dave O'Farrell

Abstract

Very few people, at least in the western world, will go through life without some form of pharmaceutical treatment. The global market in pharmaceuticals was worth in excess of $954 billion in 2011 and has been predicted to exceed $1.1 trillion by 20141. With such huge revenues it is inevitable that the pharmaceutical industry will exhibit some of the very worst attributes of modern capitalism. The fact that these attributes occur in an industry that is directly related to peoples' health and well-being presents a stark contrast between the stated goals of the pharmaceutical companies to develop treatments to improve people's health and the reality of the capitalist system, which places profit above all other considerations.

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Published

2013-09-15