Concerns About the Current Pharmaphobia in the World of Innovation: Its Consequences and Risks

This chapter reviews the history, perpetrators, and substance of an ideological movement aptly dubbed “pharmaphobia” that originated in the late 1980s in response to incidents alleged to reflect corruption of biomedical research by corporate interests. In the mid 2000s it expanded to encompass health care education and service. The catchword for the movement's accusations of corruption by industry influence is “conflict of interest.” The overarching messages are that government and academic institutions are predominantly responsible for health care innovation that industry is merely a necessary evil to commercialize such innovation that it compromises patient safety and that its marketing practices promote inappropriate prescribing. The chapter summarizes the factual errors, logical flaws, and anti-innovative regulatory consequences of the pharmaphobia narrative.