Combined 2008 expenses of Novartis, Pfizer, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck: $184.97 billion
Lobbying
Amount spent by pharmaceutical lobby in 2008: $233,707,158
Amount spent by tobacco lobby in 2008: $27,967,200
Pharmaceutical industry’s rank in money spent on lobbying: 1
Lawsuits
Cost of biggest pharmaceutical settlement in history (as of 2008), paid by Merck to victims of heart attacks and strokes resulting from use of Vioxx: $4.85 billion
Total revenue of Vioxx: more than $11 billion
Markups
Average price of 30-day brand-name antibiotic prescription: $144.27
Average price of 30-day generic antibiotic prescription: $36.40
Revenues
Amount Americans spent on prescription drugs in the U.S. in 1990: $40.3 billion
Amount Americans spent on prescription drugs in the U.S. in 2006: $216.7 billion
Combined budgets of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Education, Labor, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Justice in 2006: $220.2 billion
Total pharmaceutical expenditure per capita in the U.S. in 2007: $878
Total pharmaceutical expenditure per capita in Sweden in 2007: $446
Total pharmaceutical expenditure per capita in Mexico in 2007: $198
