So after Marcia Angell rips the pharma industry a new one in the LA Times last week, the official comeback from Alan Homer, President of PhRMA is nothing short of pathetic. Is this really all that big pharma feels it needs to respond to? Go after her credibility (as Atlas did in THCB last week). Go after her facts, if you can. Or do something positive. Try to explain how drugs have reduced other health care costs over the years, and how they’ve improved life expectancy and that we have to pay for that. But apparently the only thing that Holmer can come up with is that his mom had fewer side-effects on a me-too? That absolutely justifies the sixth statin on the market to rise in price by 15% each year.

I don’t know if they can’t do any better or if they just don’t care what people think of them. Maybe the tobacco companies’ place at the bottom of the reputation list isn’t safe after all.