Drug Company Abuses

[From article]
"Charged with fraud, TAP pleaded guilty to illegal marketing and agreed to settle the case by paying $875 million -- the largest settlement of a medical-fraud case in U.S. history. In November, a judge approved a $150 million settlement in a class-action suit brought by Lupron patients, pushing the potential total the company will pay to more than $1 billion.[. . .]
Patients pay more for medications they may not need and that may actually have harmful side effects.
[. . .]
In 2000, Merck spent more to market Vioxx than Anheuser-Busch spent pitching Budweiser.
[. . .]
federal and state governments generally only prosecute cases of fraud involving Medicare or Medicaid
[. . .]
Last year, pharmaceutical companies spent a combined $3.8 billion on direct-to-consumer advertising, an expense the companies say is necessary to keep the public informed about breakthrough drugs. But the amount spent on consumer advertising was only a small portion of the industry's combined $21 billion marketing budgets.
[one doctor] charged some $38,000 for drugs he got for free,"

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/bad_medicine/

Bad Medicine
Drug companies, already under fire for selling medications that don't work, are bribing doctors to prescribe pills you don't need.
By Michael Blanding
Posted on 5/15/06 [I read a print version dated February 2005.]