[jonahhorowitz]

As long as they spend so much on marketing, it's hard to believe them when they say the only way they can recoup their R&D investments is to charge high prices.

- *For many large pharmaceutical companies ("Big Pharma"), marketing costs often exceed R&D spending.* In analyses of the top 10 drugmakers by revenue in 2020, 7 companies spent more on sales and marketing than on research and development. For example, Johnson & Johnson spent $22 billion on marketing compared to $12 billion on R&D; Bayer spent $18 billion on marketing vs. $8 billion on R&D[1][2].

- The combined marketing spend for these top 10 companies exceeded R&D by $36 billion (about 37%) in 2020[1][2].

[1] https://www.ahip.org/news/articles/new-study-in-the-midst-of... [2] https://www.csrxp.org/icymi-new-study-finds-big-pharma-spent...

[markdown]

Imagine how much cheaper healthcare could be if the US simply banned direct to consumer drug advertising.

Surely that's something that would be easier to get bipartisan support for, somewhat avoiding the "socialism vs capitalism" chasm between the parties that prevents meaningful healthcare reform.

[mullingitover]

If this bill passes[1] that's exactly what could happen. It won't, because this regime is irredeemably corrupt and controls all four branches of government, but it could.

[2] https://nadler.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID...