<i>as life saving drugs practically advertise themselves anyway</i><p>Ummm.... no, they don&#x27;t.  I have a friend who works in the industry and you&#x27;d be surprised how cautious some physicians are.  The decision to treat a patient with a new drug isn&#x27;t &quot;oh! it&#x27;s better, let&#x27;s use it!&quot;, it&#x27;s much more complicated than that.  Even great drugs need to be promoted.<p>Also, you can&#x27;t compare the costs of marketing and R&amp;D.  You don&#x27;t spend marketing dollars unless you think the return is greater than 1 (you make back more than you spent).  If drug companies stopped marketing their drugs, they&#x27;d end up in a worse financial situation rather than a better one.  That extra revenue means more R&amp;D spend!