>>Since they obviously have no idea where to even start looking for drugs that work, it is truly amazing that they are managing to rack up all those obscene profits...
Not for long: unless big pharma has secret R&D programs about to come up with fabulous new drugs, the patent cliff is going to devastate profits especially for companies like Lily and Pfizer. See
http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2011/09/pharmaceutical-patent-protection-and.html
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
