The exorbitant prices of certain drugs, the role of medical visitors, useless or even dangerous drugs? In 1973, we were not yet talking about “Big Pharma”, but the questionable fortunes built on the backs of the sick and Social Security were already a great subject of concern.
In the archives of the “Obs”
Which world, which French people, which society told “Le Nouvel Observateur” (which became “L’Obs” in 2014) half a century ago? Every weekend, we offer you an article, interview, report, portrait or letter from readers drawn from our archives.
In three pages in “Le Nouvel Obs”, which we are republishing here, Patrick Séry denounced both advertising for drugs without new input and collusion between leading doctors and laboratories. And the comparison of French practices with other countries was not to our advantage: “Americans on average take ten times longer – and more cautiously – to grant a visa. » The head of the allergology department of a large hospital stated: (The) system explains that most French medicines cannot be exported to Great Britain and the United States without additional work. »
50 years ago in “l’Obs”: “Learning to peel potatoes and clean toilets, we do without it”
Article published in “Le Nouvel Observateur” n° 438, Monday April 2, 1973
(Title and typography are contemporary.)
BILLIONS ON PRESCRIPTION
It is said
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