Even though its growth rate has declined from the hot 18% of 2001 to 10% the pharaceutical industry still had a pretty darn good year in 2004:
in 2004 the U.S. pharmaceutical industry reached the quarter trillion dollar mark for the first time, with $251 billion in product sales
I suspect the industry would prefer the 18% growth rate but there are some pressures holding them back:
According to NDCHealth, four factors have contributed to the overall pharmaceutical market growth decline: generic erosion; safety issues and product withdrawals; increased consumer switching to over-the- counter (OTC) medications and a lack of new blockbuster drugs.
On the other hand market penetration for some drugs appears significant:
-Among all patients receiving a drug in 2004, 10% were on Pfizer’s Zithromax
I think that it is in their best interest to convince us that things we used to live with are actually debilitating health problems. Hence the Prozak nation.
It is in their best interest to convince us that health problems that could be handled without drugs can be handled more easily with drugs.
All of which is to say, no, I don’t trust them. I’m not particularly antagonistic toward them, either, though. I just take their stinkin’ drugs.
I think they’re making the big bucks off all the people who had the flu which ended up into sinus infections. I now have to take another dose of meds because the first didn’t totally take care of my sinus infection. And then there’s the thyroid problem so many of us experience. Synthroid definitely has a share of the market. There are the sleep aids many people have prescribed because they’re all stressed out and can’t sleep, too.