The Pharmaceutical Industry — To Whom is It Accountable?

To the Editor: In a brief letter, it is impossible to refute all of Dr. Angell's misleading charges in her editorial on the pharmaceutical industry (June 22 issue). 1 To answer her question about accountability, the industry is accountable to physicians and their patients who are waiting for cures and better treatments, and it is also accountable to patients who need access to the medicines the industry has already developed. The large number of medicines being developed — more than a thousand are in the pipeline — proves our commitment to the first group, and company-sponsored patient-assistance programs and the industry's . . .