A new article in PLoS Medicine, "The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States," concludes that:
"...it appears that pharmaceutical companies spend almost twice as much on promotion as they do on R&D. These numbers clearly show how promotion predominates over R&D in the pharmaceutical industry, contrary to the industry's claim. ...(This) confirms the public image of a marketing-driven industry and provides an important argument to petition in favor of transforming the workings of the industry in the direction of more research and less promotion."
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