Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself%E2%80%94And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future

Medical ethicist and journalist Washington, winner of the 2008 NBCC Award for Nonfiction for Medical Apartheid, spotlights the choices made within Big Pharma, and finds that they all point to one motive: profit. Washington begins with the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, which "married the university to Big Pharma [and] created a medical-industrial complex that eventually robbed universities of their independence and seized control of medication design, costs, and even the evaluation of medication in medical journals." The industry generated record profits through such tactics as selling excised tissues without permission, patenting human genes that were found to be linked to diseases, and even conducting research on uninformed trauma victims and suspicious drug trials in third world countries. The $310 billion industry, which takes in huge profits while bankrupting first world patients and ignoring many third world diseases, often justifies its actions by claiming high research costs, but Washington finds many holes in this argument. This eye-opening investigation will make it clear why "erection on demand seems a higher priority than surviving malaria and tuberculosis." Washington concludes with suggested solutions for this ethical morass: open-access drug development, legislation, and collaborations motivated first by research, not profit. (Oct.)