Pharmaceuticals, Corporate Crime and Public Health

The pharmaceutical industry must exist to serve the community, but over the years it has engaged repeatedly in corporate crime and anti-social behaviour, with the public footing the bill. This readable study by experts in medicine, law, criminology and public health, with deep experience of the industry, documents problems ranging from false advertising and counterfeiting to corruption, fraud and overpricing. It is a fresh and revealing look at the unacceptable pressures brought to bear on doctors, politicians, patients and the media. Uniquely, the book presents realistic and worldwide solutions for the future, with positive policies encouraging honest dealing, as well as partial privatization of enforcement and a transformation of science policy to develop the medicines that society needs most. The authors examine in turn each of the main facets of the pharmaceutical industry's activities - research, manufacturing, information, distribution and pricing - as well as some questionable aspects of its relationship with society. Offering a considered analysis of pharmaceutical rights and wrongs as they have developed, particularly over the last half-century, this book is rich in new insights for managers in the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies and health agencies.