A highly regarded American professor states that 85% of new drugs produced by the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers on the market can be dangerous for patients and cause them more harm than benefits.This finding is consistent with research that a university professor in New Jersey had previously published. A few years ago I read a fine book by a former British government drug monitoring expert, who actually said that new drugs were few and far between on the market. He said that when it came top pharmaceutical production, what was introduced as a “new” was in fact the same drugs as had already been on the market, only a slight variation could be found in the chemical composition, which had in itself no value for the new product.

Based on the research by the before-mentioned American professor, the big drug companies are guilty within both the penal laws and laws of the general business market. But who is looking out for the interests of consumers and making sure that the guilty are punished and consumers receive compensation?

The pharmaceutical market is huge and its annual turnover is considered enormous, so there is a good enough reason for these companies to protect themselves. Pharmaceutical giants annually throw large parties or fake conferences for doctors and various other medical professionals to advertise and promote their drugs, and to encourage them to use their products which consumers are then made to pay high price for. Possibly drugs which will not be of any use to them. Those who are prescribing the prescriptions are the physicians. What are they responsible for? They do not actually prescribe other drugs but the drugs which have ‘lawfully’ been accepted in each state or country. But how does that process work? How does a drug become accepted? Are these people actually doing their jobs? Who is responsible for monitoring the public entities?

Iceland is a very special case when it comes to pharmaceuticals. We have a leading international company called Actavis, which produces most general pharmaceuticals and supplies not only Iceland, but most of its neighbouring countries and the US. Currently, there is little as none market competition in Iceland over legal drugs, and Actavis have been selling their drugs for a higher price in Iceland then anywhere else in Northern Europe according to public records. Obviously, the public entities have failed to supervise.

I am sure other nations are dealing with similar issues. Every country should be certain that the latest pricing information has and is being considered in regards to market fairness, and make it a priority to prevent over-pricing of pharmaceuticals to consumers. Also, the supervising entities need to justify why a product has been allowed on the market and laws should be stricter when it comes to slightly altering an already existing drug for marketing reasons.
.
Consumers should then carefully examine the need for the purchase of medicines or vitamins. In many cases, consumers are simply wasting their money, particularly when it comes to vitamins.

If this study is correct, it should be looked at as a very serious problem, that the overwhelming majority of new drugs are not really new, and that they can possible do more harm than good. Drug protection is one of the oldest organized consumer protection in the world. There is every reason to believe that some things may have been overlooked due to the super-power that are the pharmaceutical giants.