"America's Most Profitable Business:  It's pharmaceuticals--and it's under attack for making too much."
--Fortune, July 1991

On the cover of the July 1991 issue of Fortune magazine we learn about "America's Most Profitable Business: It's pharmaceuticals--and it's under attack for making too much." Prescription drug prices rose at twice the rate of inflation in the 1980's. Drug companies said it was because they invested so much money in research and development. An in-depth study shows they spent twice as much on advertising and marketing as R & D. Pharmaceuticals is a business just like any other business. They spend millions lobbying medical doctors to prescribe their goods. They get away with charging you a fortune because it's covered by insurance.

The staggering effect of prescription drugs was brought to light with a Drug Alert, in the January 1995 issue of U.S. News and World Report: "Statistics show that up to 2 million patients are hospitalized each year and as many as 140,000 die of side effects or reactions related to various prescription drugs." We have a plane crash that kills 140 people and initiate extensive investigations. It's front page news for months. Here we have 2 million people that are hospitalized and 140,000 that die, not from their original health problem but because of the drugs given to them by their doctor and no one hardly hears about it. No extensive investigations are executed. WHY?