Blazerfan, I'm curious if you have anything to back up specific claims you're making. I do marketing in this industry, not saying it's a perfect industry by any means, but some of your claims lie far fetched to me. Pharma companies that do R&D on a drug to my knowledge are almost completely funded by the pharma company or a partnership of pharma companies. They own the "patent" to a particular type of drug or compound. Universities are either funded through themselves, grants, both or pharma companies. If a university is doing a study for a pharma company, they are usually funded from the pharma company for that study. Yes universities do conduct a ton of studies with their own private funding or through grants.

I'm all for lower prescription drug prices/better healthcare, however I don't see that happening anytime soon unfortunately.

FYI..the FDA has become real strict on "perks" given to physicians like they used to. Flying a Dr. and his wife to a 3-4 day luxury vacation is no longer the norm. They do still have conferences for physicians doing the research trials, however they are very business related these days much similar to any other industry. There are hours worth of powerpoint presentations, but they are also going over protocol, procedures, drug efficacy and safety, etc. I imagine most people want their doctors familiar as possible with proper protocol and procedure in different scenarios, especially with new medications or procedures. Most conferences I've ever seen are in the U.S. and perks severely diminished before I even got in the industry.

On another note, isn't there a more appropriate forum for this topic than OKC Metro Area?