Reply #6: One sees that cited a lot, but the numbers don't agree with

[Telly Savalas]

the financial statements of the pharmaceutical firms. R&D is typically the largest expense, and that's as is should be. It costs a lot of money to discover, develop, and test the efficacy and safety of a new drug.

Pharmaceutical advertising contributes more to health care costs by expanding the market for the drug than by having the adverstising cost being absorbed in the price of each pill sold. That is, when a company runs an ad that says "ask your doctor if Bonerex is right for you," health care costs go up because more people wind up taking Bonerex (many of whom would be better served with cheaper alternatives), not so much because the price of a bottle of Bonerex is jacked up to pay for the ads.

Ads are supposed to pay for themselves. If an ad can't generate sufficient revenue to pay for itself, then it's a bad business decision to run it in the first place.

The place where there's the most wiggle room to get drug prices down is in the profit margin. The reason Bonerex costs less in Europe or Canada is that the governments there have negotiated price controls there.