Taming the BIG PHARMA MONSTER by Speaking Truth to Power

Published May, 2019.....just in time for COVID

Taming the BIG PHARMA MONSTER by Speaking Truth to Power

I thought to treat subscribers to an extract from my book published in 2019. It explained exactly why COVID was going to happen—Big Pharma companies had cast out there ability to develop new drugs. This is how it goes:

THE CRUCIAL SEDUCTION UNEARTHED

In November 1976, Smith Kline & French (SK&F) launched ‘Tagamet’, a drug to combat stomach ulcers. It quickly took off and was dubbed the world’s first ‘blockbuster’ drug (≥ $1 bn annual sales). Glaxo launched a competitor product, ‘Zantac’, in 1981 and immediately targeted reportedly minor side-effects of Tagamet to pitch their case to doctors. By 1987, Zantac had become the world’s biggest-selling prescription drug, outselling Tagamet 3:1 at one point.

This was the first example of clever targeting capturing competitor markets, and it stimulated phenomenal growth in the therapeutic area; the profits were immense for both companies, on sales of tens of billions of dollars. It was the b…