Randy Newman Quotes
I am not overlooking any mail. I'm looking at all of it. I even wrote back to the Viagra people.
Newman, Randy. Interview. The New York Times, The New York Times Company, 2008.
The line was delivered by actor Robin Williams.
This quotation is notable as it shows that problems that are not dealt with in one generation can continue for generation after generation. Today we have the exact same problem with overly expensive drugs. In a capitalistic system, every business with good products and sales should make profits. But products that people need to say alive, most people think, should not make larger profit percentages than almost any other business. But this problem is over half a century old in America.
The major killer diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness are not contracted by Americans, and America is the only large country in the world where the Governments allow the drug companies to charge such high prices and make such huge profits. So any drug that Americans might pay for is a better potential profit generator than one that would be critical to the lives of millions where the governments to preserve lives would force the prices down or allow other companies to also make the drug. See {628648} for other factors affecting drug company priorities.
This was the first White House staff member whose duties encompassed recieveing, sorting, analyzing and drafting responses to incoming mail and telegrams
The immediate trigger for this statement was the Mylan Company’s price increase of 500 percent for Epi-pens which people—frequently children—needed to carry to contact a bad allergic reaction that would other wise put them into anaphylactic shock which could be fatal. One of the reasons the company gave for the increase was that their marketing costs were very high. The practice of paying physicians to use a drug and then give testimonials and pitch the drug had long been controversial, but in 2016 the public learned that the practice was much more widespread than anyone had known. Making the situation worse was the fact that physicians would prescribe the drug for their patients and had no obligation to tell the patient or his/her family that he was being paid by the drug company. The Congress held hearings but did nothing at the time.
Randall Stuart Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and various film scores. His best-known songs as a recording artist are "Short People" (1977), "I Love L.A." (1983), and "You've Got a Friend in Me" (1995), while other artists have enjoyed more success with cover versions of his "Mama Told Me Not to Come" (1966), "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (1968) and "You Can Leave Your Hat On" (1972).
