Question: Is your work influenced by the company's need to make a profit?

Kiran Meekings answered on 21 Mar 2010:

I’m an independent analyst so no, my work isn’t influenced by profit but pharmaceutical companies do use my work to decide which drugs to develop. Ultimately that is linked to profit. Drug companies sometimes develop drugs at a loss (if there’s only a few people with the disease for instance) but generally, they have to make a profit in order to make money to invest in more research to develop more drugs in the future. It’s an emotive topic as people don’t think drug companies should make money from drugs but that’s the only way to drive healthcare forward…