US drug companies spent $57.5 billion to promote drugs in 2004, versus $31.5 billion for industrial research and development, Canadian researchers wrote in the January 2 edition of the journal PLoS Medicine, pub

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lished by the Public Library of Science (PLoS).

Included in the amount spent on marketing and promotion were free samples, visits from drug representatives, direct-to-consumer advertising, and email and direct mail promotions.

"The authors believe that their figure of $57.5 billion is likely to be an underestimate," the statement said. Their tally does not include ghost-writing of articles in medical journals by drug companies, nor off-label promotion of drugs, the PLoS added. – (HealthDayNews)

You can find the full PLoS Medicine article here.

Read more:
WHO faces cheap drug showdown
No cheap drug breakthrough

January 2008
 

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