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The pharmaceutical industry has long been one of the most profitable global industries, but its critics say it is too profit-oriented, pricing its drugs out of reach of the world's poor, inventing illnesses, not doing enough research and relaunching largely unchanged medicines at higher prices.

The industry takes advantage of the priority given by many governments to intellectual property rights over access to health rights, it is claimed.

Illustrating its generally bad reputation, a study of industry references in US newspapers found the number of unfavourable mentions more than double favourable ones.

However, the big companies claim their prices reflect product development and costs: bringing a drug to market can cost EUR350 million-EUR800 million and take up to 15 years. The author calls for a more constructive dialogue aimed at bringing agreement on a regulatory framework.

Do drug companies deserve their bad reputation?

Domenec Mele,
IESE Insight, June 2006

Review by Steve Lodge