Reforming Drug Addicts...Rx companies, that is.

I have written about the drug companies many times, often with the line "How much profit should one person make from another person's pain?" Having worked as a strategy consultant to the pharma firms, I am acutely aware of the actions of the drug firms to influence doctors, patients, and others while stifling competition.

Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, has the guts to call it like it is.
From the NYT...
Europe Accuses Drug Makers of Padding Health Care Costs By JAMES KANTER BRUSSELS — The European Union accused drug companies on Friday of adding billions of dollars to health care costs by delaying or blocking the sale of less expensive generic medicines. One common tactic, said Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, was for drug companies to amass patents to protect active ingredients in the medicines — in one case, 1,300 patents for a single drug. Another tactic, she said, was for pharmaceutical companies to sue the makers of generic drugs for ostensible patent violations, which tended to delay the availability of the lower-cost products for years. Ms. Kroes made her comments Friday while presenting the preliminary findings of a broad investigation into accusations of anticompetitive practices in the drug sector. She also turned her sights on the generics companies, which she said had received $200 million from pharmaceutical companies over seven years in exchange for holding their products off the market.