Matters of Scale - Fit for Public Consumption
Amount of money U.S. drug companies spent on marketing in 1999 | $14 billion |
Amount of money the 12 largest drug companies spent on research and development that year | $19 billion |
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Amount that BP (formerly British Petroleum) is spending annually to market its new name and its new environmentally friendly image of moving "beyond petroleum" | $100 million |
Amount that BP invests annually in clean energy (solar, wind, etc.) each year | $100 million |
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U.S. military sending on the war in Afghanistan | at least $2.5 billion |
U.S. government spending on emergency humanitarian aid to Afghanistan | $0.320 billion |
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U.S. funding for Plan Colombia, which aims
to halt illicit coca production largely through military funding
and aerial spraying of herbicides | $1.3 billion |
Share of this funding dedicated to helping
Colombian farmers shift to legal crops | $0.081 billion |
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Wholesale price, per pill, Bayer Corporation
charges for the anthrax-fighting antibiotic Cipro | $4.67 |
Approximate price that generic drugmakers
say they could profitably charge for making the drug | $0.40 |
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Sources: Public Citizen report,
“Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry Corporate Profits,
1999,” 6 October 2000; “Dinner’s On You,”
All Things Considered, NPR, 23 July 2001; “BP Amoco Unveils
New Global Brand to Drive Growth,” BP Press Release, 24
July 2000; Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, Climate Change
and Shareholder Value: Case Study of BP (New York: 2001); “War
experts: U.S. Campaign Cost-Effective,” CNN.com, 14 December
2001; “Fighting Terror/Aiding a Nation; U.S. Cost to Rebuild
Afghanistan at Issue,” The Boston Globe, 9 January 2002;
“Stepped Up Battle Against Coca Ignites Debate,” The
Miami Herald, 16 April 2001; “Medicine as a Luxury,”
The American Prospect: Globalism and Poverty supplement, winter
2002.