Prescription drugs cost Americans about $200 billion dollars a year, and that number is rising faster than any other medical expense. Pharmaceutical companies would have us believe that the rising cost of medication is necessary to fund research and development (R&D;) of new, life-saving drugs, but in reality they spend more on marketing than research.
America’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies spend less than 15% of what they make in sales on R&D.; Of that R&D; very little goes into developing new medications. Most of the “new” drugs that go on the market every year are just new versions of drugs that have been around for years, often available in many forms and combinations already. Very little R&D; funding actually goes into producing medical breakthroughs.
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