Submitted by Ed Remus on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 11:06

Send to friend

 The following content was posted on Al Jazeera's English-language website on August 11, 2010; the video clip was reproduced on The Real News Network's website on August 12, 2010. For more recent coverage of Big Pharma, see Carl Elliott's "Making a Killing" article in the September/October 2010 issue of Mother Jones.

The US healthcare industry is the world's biggest, with $300bn per year spent on prescription drugs.

For many these drugs have brought undeniable benefits.

But recent months have seen health scandal after health scandal making headlines in the US.

Two of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies have been fined billions of dollars after investigations into their secret working practices.

What these cases have revealed will change the way the drug industry is perceived forever.

Revelations have emerged of pervasive fraud, fatal side effects, and huge kick-backs paid to doctors.

This investigation by Melanie Newman and Chris Woods reveals how healthcare became unhealthy profit.