Harriet Washington argues that a growing corporate presence in the medical industry yields dire consequences for patients, as drug development and research is initiated on a for-profit basis. Ms. Washington’s contentions of the industry’s fiscal motivations include the reported versus the actual cost of bringing a new drug to market, her estimate that the monetary value of gifts given by corporate drug manufacturers to physicians in 2000 was $6 billion, and the restricted nature of medical patents, which, the author contends suppresses research. Harriet Washington showed slides throughout her presentation, and then responded to questions from members of the audience at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.