Pharmaceuticals, Corporate Crime and Public Health

The pharmaceutical industry claims to exist to serve the community, but over the years it has engaged massively in corporate crime and anti social behaviour, with the public footing the bill.

This readable study by world leaders in medicine and criminology (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 on doctors, politicians, patients and the media.

Uniquely, the book presents a realistic and worldwide solution 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 in 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 over the last half-century, this book is rich in new insights for managers in the pharmaceutical industry, regulatory agencies and health advocates.