[Pharm-policy] Gerth and Stolberg: Drug Industry Has Ties to Groups With Many Different Voices

[James Love]

Another fine dispatch from Gerth and Stolberg

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/05/science/05LOBB.html

October 5, 2000


         MEDICINE MERCHANTS

         Drug Industry Has Ties to Groups With Many
         Different Voices

         By JEFF GERTH and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 - Elizabeth Helms arrived on Capitol Hill on a warm
Tuesday afternoon in July with a simple message for Congress: Drug
stores, not drug makers, are to blame for the high cost of prescription
medicines.

Under the hot glare of television lights, Ms. Helms, a former
hairdresser from Folsom, Calif., implored a panel of senators not to
"kill the golden goose - the pharmaceutical industry." Then she
presented her evidence: a survey of 80 pharmacies that showed consumers
could cut their drug bills by more than half simply by shopping around.

"The argument that the industry is gouging consumers with prices is
completely unfounded," Ms. Helms declared.

A consumer activist, Ms. Helms came to the Senate hearing representing
three grass- roots organizations, including the patients' group that
sponsored her survey and a consumer coalition, Citizens for the Right to
Know. What her audience did not hear, however, was that she also works
full time for a public relations company whose clients include the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug
industry's trade group.

    [snip]

-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
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