Introduction to the Pharmaceutical Industry

The extensive pharmaceutical industry covers all levels of the creation and distribution of drugs used for medication. The pharmaceutical industry in the United States is a billion dollar industry that is carefully regulated by the government.

Function

• The pharmaceutical industry balances investing money into creating drugs with the potential profits of selling said drugs. Drug research and development is expensive, causing pharmaceutical companies to hesitate in funding new drug research. A number of drug companies compose the pharmaceutical industry in the United States.

Oversight

• The pharmaceutical industry is carefully regulated to ensure that all drugs released to the public have been thoroughly tested. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration oversees this regulation.

Features

• Like most industries, the pharmaceutical industry uses special terminology in its craft, specifically for the phases of drug testing before release to the general public. These include "informed consent," or ensuring that a patient participating in a trial drug test knows that he is participating in an experiment; and "effectiveness," or how potent a drug is against a condition versus the expectations for the drug.