Sherrod Brown: “2003 promises to be the third straight year of double-digit premium increases in health insurance. Guess what else is…”

“2003 promises to be the third straight year of double-digit premium increases in health insurance. Guess what else is increasing at double-digit rates? Drug industry profits. In 2001 while the rest of the Nation was reeling from a plummeting economy, the drug industry boosted their profits by 33 percent. In 2002, profits registered by the 10 drug companies on the Fortune 500 list were equal to more than half the $70 billion in profits netted by the entire roster of Fortune 500 companies. The top 10 drug companies raked in profits 5 times greater than the median for all industries. Over the last 20 years, the drug industry has been the most profitable industry in America. Return on investment, return on sales, return on equity, any way you measure it for the last 20 years, the drug industry has been the most profitable industry in America. And the drug industry has paid lower tax rates than any other industry in America. While the drug industry tells lawmakers that any limits on their profits will crimp innovation, they rarely acknowledge they spend more money on marketing their drugs than they do in research and development. They seldom mention, as I said, they pay the lowest tax rates of any industry in America; and they seldom mention that the government and foundations do literally half of all their research and development that leads to new drugs.”