Pharmaceutical companies like to style themselves as public servants. They conjure up images of lab coats, clipboards, and solemn scientists leaning over Petri dishes for the good of humanity.
But it’s all propaganda to distract us from the fact that their business model rarely has our well-being in mind. We are told to be grateful for medicine. We are told it’s miraculous that insulin exists, not scandalous that it costs $300.
Think about it. Shouldn’t you be more skeptical of things when the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has a valuation of over $634.32 billion? Did you know that by 2030, this industry will be worth $883.97 billion? So much money and zero corruption? That’s a stretch for anyone.
We are told that the system is broken, but it’s functioning exactly as intended. Let’s go a little deeper into this.
Big Pharma Loves the Quiet Power They Have
Here’s the thing: positive emotions and traits like innocence are massively marketable. It’s why companies like Abbott Laboratories manage to rake in huge profits from products aimed at babies and new parents. So, when NEC lawsuits started to be filed against pharmaceuticals, it wasn’t a surprise to anyone who had their eyes open.
If this is the first time you’re hearing about it, NEC refers to a severe disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis. According to TorHoerman Law, there are over 625 lawsuits against Abbott Laboratories and Mead Johnson & Company. The companies knew. The science was mounting. But the marketing went on.
As of May 2025, the cumulative verdicts in NEC baby formula lawsuits have reached $555 million. However, does it also surprise anyone that the judge overseeing the cases granted a summary judgment? Essentially, Abbott won the case for the first bellwether before the trial even began. This isn’t an isolated case, but what’s sadder is how quietly these stories are buried. That’s the quiet power big pharma has.
No op-eds. No Netflix documentaries. Just courtroom settlements and severance pay. The baby formula scandal doesn’t need to be covered up. It’s simply ignored. And that’s how these companies thrive. They don’t bother hiding their mistakes, they just rely on your short attention span and your long list of other things to worry about.
They don’t need a conspiracy when they’ve already won the narrative. After all, they’re ‘Safe.’ ‘Trusted’ and ‘Pediatrician Recommended.’ We’re dealing with institutions so large that even when they kill you, they do so politely, with liability disclaimers and marketing budgets.
“New and Improved” Are Lies You Pay More For
What does it mean when a drug is called “new”? More often than not, it means it’s slightly rebranded. A molecule has been rotated 90 degrees, a formula restructured just enough to refile the patent and inflate the price. This isn’t innovation. It’s prolonging exclusivity. It’s a trick of paperwork.
Find that hard to believe? Well, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) released a 2023 report highlighting that pharmaceutical companies increased prices on certain drugs without new clinical evidence or improvements.
For instance, AbbVie’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira saw a 7.1% price increase in 2022, costing taxpayers an additional $386 million, despite no enhancements to the drug. If you think pharmaceutical companies are racing to cure cancer or diabetes, you’ve misunderstood their motivation. Chronic illness is a goldmine. Cures are a dead end.
Pharma PR will tell you they invest billions into research. What they leave out is that a huge percentage of foundational research comes from public institutions, taxpayer-funded labs, and university studies. They swoop in later, file the patents, and monetize what was built collectively.
Moreover, they’re not developing what the world needs. They’re producing what the market wants, and the market only wants what’s profitable. This is why you get weight-loss drugs that ruin your pancreas and erectile dysfunction pills sold by celebrities. Meanwhile, antibiotics rot on the shelf because they’re not lucrative enough. The future of medicine is held hostage by what’s trending on Wall Street.
Their Use of Lobbying and Legal Intimidation is Grotesque
If you’re still wondering why nothing ever changes, follow the money. Politicians don’t need bribes when campaign donations and revolving-door job offers do the same thing with better optics.
Data from Statista shows that over the last five years (2020 to 2024), approximately $1.74 billion was spent on lobbying efforts. This makes the pharmaceutical and health product sector one of the biggest indirect influencers of policy.
The result is that even sensible reforms like capping insulin prices or allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs get watered down or quietly killed. In other words, pharmaceutical companies don’t just influence policy; they design it and fight to reshape the market so they always win.
And when lobbying doesn’t cut it, legal intimidation steps in. Generic drug manufacturers are dragged into court for years, sued into oblivion just for trying to make affordable alternatives. Whistleblowers? Silenced with settlements and nondisclosure agreements. Class-action lawsuits? Stretched out until plaintiffs die, settle, or lose the will to keep going.
This is how power protects itself. Not with secrecy, but with procedure, red tape, and legislation drafted by corporate attorneys and sold to you as policy. It’s a perfectly calibrated machine that runs on profit, not ethics.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the top 5 pharmaceutical companies?
The top five pharmaceutical companies, based on revenue and global reach, are Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Merck, and Novartis. They dominate the market with blockbuster drugs, vaccines, and research. These giants invest billions in R&D, but they’re also often in the spotlight for controversies.
2. What are the ethical issues in big pharma?
Big Pharma faces criticism for price gouging, lack of transparency, aggressive marketing, and sometimes putting profits before people. There’s also concern about access to life-saving meds in poorer countries. People often question whether decisions are driven more by shareholders than by patient well-being.
3. Is lobbying a bribe?
Lobbying isn’t technically a bribe—it’s legal and meant to influence policy through advocacy. But let’s be real, the line gets blurry. When companies spend millions to sway lawmakers, it raises fair questions about whether regular people’s voices still carry much weight in politics.
So, where does that leave us? If we can’t count on reform, on regulation, or even on outrage to shake this machine, what’s left? The answer is uncomfortable: it might be us. Because the only thing that has ever made giants flinch is mass refusal to stay silent and compliant.
The truth is, no amount of good branding or sterile packaging can hide what these companies have chosen to become. So, maybe the most radical thing we can do isn’t just to dislike them but to wake up and stop blindly believing everything they say.