The pharmaceutical industry has a number of unusual characteristics that make it very different from what people normally think of as industry. It is also an industry replete with contradictions; for example, despite the undisputed fact that for over a century the industry has made a major contribution to human wellbeing and the reduction of ill health and suffering, it is still regularly identified by the public in opinion surveys as one of the least trusted industries, often being compared unfavourably to the nuclear industry.