Why Do Drugs Cost So Much

Author : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,Health and Medicine Division,Board on Health Care Services,Committee on Ensuring Patient Access to Affordable Drug Therapies
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 235 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2018-03-01
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780309468084

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Making Medicines Affordable by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,Health and Medicine Division,Board on Health Care Services,Committee on Ensuring Patient Access to Affordable Drug Therapies Pdf

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

Author : Joe,Ruth
Publisher : AuthorHouse
Page : 430 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2008-06
Category : Drugs
ISBN : 9781434389909

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Why Do Drugs Cost So Much? by Joe,Ruth Pdf

Caution! Reading this book in it's entirety may cause the following side effects: Surprise, Anger, Disbelief, and even Amusement. We begin by revealing the little known, inside workings of the pharmaceutical industry, based on the experiences of people who have worked there. Why do you think it is that your drugs cost so much? Is it because of all the high tech 'stuff' that goes into making it? Or is it something else that might shock or even anger you? What goes on behind the scenes often has nothing whatsoever to do with science. This leads to the second part which has to do with our health and the things you may not even realize are making us all sick. This is not just another 'eat right and exercise' book. You will discover information you have never heard before. There are even things that have been proven to harm you but have been covered up or ignored, and even encouraged, as long as there is money to be made. Do you like investigative reporting? Do you like history, or science fiction? Do you have a taste for the macabre? Are you concerned about declining health care, government and military cover ups, or the high cost of medicine? Written with some humor and at times a touch of sarcasm, there is a little bit of something here for everyone. You may or may not agree with some of the things in this book, but once you start reading it, your curiosity will make you want to pick it up again and again until you are finished.

Author : Raisa Deber
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2018-01-18
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9781487513467

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Treating Health Care by Raisa Deber Pdf

Canada has been among the world leaders in recognizing the multiple factors that impact health. Focusing on Canada’s health care system, Raisa B. Deber provides brief descriptions of some key facts and concepts necessary to understand health care policy in Canada and place it in an international context. An accessible guide, Treating Health Care unpacks key concepts to provide informed discussions that help us understand and diagnose Canada’s health care system and to clarify which proposed changes are likely to improve it - and which are not. This book provides background information to clarify such concepts as: determinants of health; how health systems are organized and financed (including international comparisons); health economics; health ethics; and roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, including government, providers, and patients. It then addresses some key issues, including equity, efficiency, access and wait times, quality improvement and patient safety, and coverage and payment models. Using analysis rather than advocacy, Deber provides a toolkit to help understand health care and health policy.

Author : Marcia Angell
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Page : 354 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2005-08-09
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780375760945

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The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell Pdf

During her two decades at The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry. She watched drug companies stray from their original mission of discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead become vast marketing machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. She saw them gain nearly limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs. She sympathized as the American public, particularly the elderly, struggled and increasingly failed to meet spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become–and argues for essential, long-overdue change. Currently Americans spend a staggering $200 billion each year on prescription drugs. As Dr. Angell powerfully demonstrates, claims that high drug prices are necessary to fund research and development are unfounded: The truth is that drug companies funnel the bulk of their resources into the marketing of products of dubious benefit. Meanwhile, as profits soar, the companies brazenly use their wealth and power to push their agenda through Congress, the FDA, and academic medical centers. Zeroing in on hugely successful drugs like AZT (the first drug to treat HIV/AIDS), Taxol (the best-selling cancer drug in history), and the blockbuster allergy drug Claritin, Dr. Angell demonstrates exactly how new products are brought to market. Drug companies, she shows, routinely rely on publicly funded institutions for their basic research; they rig clinical trials to make their products look better than they are; and they use their legions of lawyers to stretch out government-granted exclusive marketing rights for years. They also flood the market with copycat drugs that cost a lot more than the drugs they mimic but are no more effective. The American pharmaceutical industry needs to be saved, mainly from itself, and Dr. Angell proposes a program of vital reforms, which includes restoring impartiality to clinical research and severing the ties between drug companies and medical education. Written with fierce passion and substantiated with in-depth research, The Truth About the Drug Companies is a searing indictment of an industry that has spun out of control.

Author : Joe and Ruth
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 428 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2008-06-01
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 1434361594

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Why Do Drugs Cost So Much? by Joe and Ruth Pdf

Robert Louis Rayburn is author of two prior verse by verse commentaries : EPHESIANS: The Epistle Of The Third Heaven and REVELATION: Rapture, Retribution & Rhapsody. It was through the influence of his father, the late Pastor Russell S. Rayburn, that Mr. Rayburn accepted Christ as Saviour. His father's Christian life and knowledge of the Scriptures also influenced the author to develop a love for the Word of God. Mr. Rayburn is now retired from two professions: Resource Development Manager in the transportation business; also as a Marketing Consultant with an Executive Placement Firm. He loves to share his testimony verse, which is Job 23:12, "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food."

Author : Ben Goldacre
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 479 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2014-04
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780865478060

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Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre Pdf

Argues that doctors are deliberately misinformed by profit-seeking pharmaceutical companies that casually withhold information about drug efficacy and side effects, explaining the process of pharmaceutical data manipulation and its global consequences. By the best-selling author of Bad Science.

Author : Merrill Goozner
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2005-10-10
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0520246705

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The $800 Million Pill by Merrill Goozner Pdf

"Goozner shows how drug innovation is driven by dedicated scientists intent on finding cures for diseases, not by pharmaceutical firms, whose bottom line often takes precedence over the advance of medicine. Stories of a university biochemist who spent twenty years searching for single blood protein that later became the best-selling biotech drug in the world, a government employee who discovered the causes for dozens of crippling genetic disorders, and the Department of Energy-funded research that made the Human Genome Project possible - these accounts illustrate how medical breakthroughs actually take place.".

Author : Merrill Goozner
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2004-04-22
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780520939288

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The $800 Million Pill by Merrill Goozner Pdf

Why do life-saving prescription drugs cost so much? Drug companies insist that prices reflect the millions they invest in research and development. In this gripping exposé, Merrill Goozner contends that American taxpayers are in fact footing the bill twice: once by supporting government-funded research and again by paying astronomically high prices for prescription drugs. Goozner demonstrates that almost all the important new drugs of the past quarter-century actually originated from research at taxpayer-funded universities and at the National Institutes of Health. He reports that once the innovative work is over, the pharmaceutical industry often steps in to reap the profit. Goozner shows how drug innovation is driven by dedicated scientists intent on finding cures for diseases, not by pharmaceutical firms whose bottom line often takes precedence over the advance of medicine. A university biochemist who spent twenty years searching for a single blood protein that later became the best-selling biotech drug in the world, a government employee who discovered the causes for dozens of crippling genetic disorders, and the Department of Energy-funded research that made the Human Genome Project possible--these engrossing accounts illustrate how medical breakthroughs actually take place. The $800 Million Pill suggests ways that the government's role in testing new medicines could be expanded to eliminate the private sector waste driving up the cost of existing drugs. Pharmaceutical firms should be compelled to refocus their human and financial resources on true medical innovation, Goozner insists. This book is essential reading for everyone concerned about the politically charged topics of drug pricing, Medicare coverage, national health care, and the role of pharmaceutical companies in developing countries.

Author : Katherine Eban
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2020-06-23
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780063054103

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Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban Pdf

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019 New York Public Library Best Books of 2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Health and Science Books of 2019 Science Friday Best Books of 2019 New postscript by the author From an award-winning journalist, an explosive narrative investigation of the generic drug boom that reveals fraud and life-threatening dangers on a global scale—The Jungle for pharmaceuticals Many have hailed the widespread use of generic drugs as one of the most important public-health developments of the twenty-first century. Today, almost 90 percent of our pharmaceutical market is comprised of generics, the majority of which are manufactured overseas. We have been reassured by our doctors, our pharmacists and our regulators that generic drugs are identical to their brand-name counterparts, just less expensive. But is this really true? Katherine Eban’s Bottle of Lies exposes the deceit behind generic-drug manufacturing—and the attendant risks for global health. Drawing on exclusive accounts from whistleblowers and regulators, as well as thousands of pages of confidential FDA documents, Eban reveals an industry where fraud is rampant, companies routinely falsify data, and executives circumvent almost every principle of safe manufacturing to minimize cost and maximize profit, confident in their ability to fool inspectors. Meanwhile, patients unwittingly consume medicine with unpredictable and dangerous effects. The story of generic drugs is truly global. It connects middle America to China, India, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil, and represents the ultimate litmus test of globalization: what are the risks of moving drug manufacturing offshore, and are they worth the savings? A decade-long investigation with international sweep, high-stakes brinkmanship and big money at its core, Bottle of Lies reveals how the world’s greatest public-health innovation has become one of its most astonishing swindles.

Author : Peter J. Neumann,Joshua T. Cohen,Daniel A. Ollendorf
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-05-06
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780197512906

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The Right Price by Peter J. Neumann,Joshua T. Cohen,Daniel A. Ollendorf Pdf

The US prescription drug business is a $500 billion industry whose rising prices carry profound consequences for patients, caregivers, employers and taxpayers across the nation. In the United States, average prices of leading brand-name drugs are two to four times higher than prices charged in other wealthy countries, raising questions as to what Americans are getting for the extra expense. On the other hand, healthy industry returns have arguably fueled life-saving innovation. With the advent of ever more targeted and powerful treatments, including cell- and gene-based therapies with multi-million-dollar price tags, the need for sensible drug pricing policies will only intensify. The Right Price sheds light on the controversial topic of drug pricing by providing an accessible guide to pharmaceutical markets and analytic techniques used to measure the value of drug therapies. It illustrates the need for value-based pricing through real-life stories of patients and their experiences with the drug industry and explains why simple solutions like price controls and the importation of cheaper drugs from other countries are problematic. This volume describes how researchers and policy makers have pursued drug valuation efforts in the past, and lays out a series of recommendations, based on years of shared author experience serving on national drug policy platforms, for how to further improve pharmaceutical value assessment in the United States. With unique industry insights and clear narrative, The Right Price unveils why the pricing of drugs continues to be so challenging and how public and private officials can create more informed policies to achieve the right balance between drug pricing and value.

Author : Jerry Avorn, M.D.
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 476 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2005-08-09
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781400030781

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Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn, M.D. Pdf

If you believe that the latest blockbuster medication is worth a premium price over your generic brand, or that doctors have access to all the information they need about a drug’s safety and effectiveness each time they write a prescription, Dr. Jerry Avorn has some sobering news. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of patient care, teaching, and research at Harvard Medical School, he shares his firsthand experience of the wide gap in our knowledge of the effectiveness of one medication as compared to another. In Powerful Medicines, he reminds us that every pill we take represents a delicate compromise between the promise of healing, the risk of side effects, and an increasingly daunting price. The stakes on each front grow higher every year as new drugs with impressive power, worrisome side effects, and troubling costs are introduced. This is a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at issues that affect everyone: our shortage of data comparing the worth of similar drugs for the same condition; alarming lapses in the detection of lethal side effects; the underuse of life-saving medications; lavish marketing campaigns that influence what doctors prescribe; and the resulting upward spiral of costs that places vital drugs beyond the reach of many Americans. In this engagingly written book, Dr. Avorn asks questions that will interest every consumer: How can a product judged safe by the Food and Drug Administration turn out to have unexpectedly lethal side effects? Why has the nation’s drug bill been growing at nearly 20 percent per year? How can physicians and patients pick the best medication in its class? How do doctors actually make their prescribing decisions, and why do those decisions sometimes go wrong? Why do so many Americans suffer preventable illnesses and deaths that proper drug use could have averted? How can the nation gain control over its escalating drug budget without resorting to rationing or draconian governmental controls? Using clinical case histories taken from his own work as a practitioner, researcher, and advocate, Dr. Avorn demonstrates the impressive power of the well-conceived prescription as well as the debacles that can result when medications are misused. He describes an innovative program that employs the pharmaceutical industry’s own marketing techniques to reduce use of some of the most overprescribed and overpriced products. Powerful Medicines offers timely and practical advice on how the nation can improve its drug-approval process, and how patients can work with doctors to make sure their prescriptions are safe, effective, and as affordable as possible. This is a passionate and provocative call for action as well as a compelling work of clear-headed science.

Author : Donald Light
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780231146920

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The Risks of Prescription Drugs by Donald Light Pdf

Raises key questions about topics in the pharmaceutical industry, including how the risks of side effects are weighed, if privatization of that risk is prudent, and the high prices for drugs.

Author : Peter Gotzsche
Publisher : CRC Press
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2019-08-21
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781908911124

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Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime by Peter Gotzsche Pdf

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS ARE THE THIRD LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH AFTER HEART DISEASE AND CANCER. In his latest ground-breaking book, Peter C Gotzsche exposes the pharmaceutical industries and their charade of fraudulent behaviour, both in research and marketing where the morally repugnant disregard for human lives is the norm. He convincingly draws close co

Author : Anonim
Publisher : U.S. Government Printing Office
Page : 94 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : PURD:32754071785707

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How Increased Competition from Generic Drugs Has Affected Prices and Returns in the Pharmaceutical Industry by Anonim Pdf

Author : Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Publisher : PublicAffairs
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2014-03-04
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9781610393461

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Reinventing American Health Care by Ezekiel J. Emanuel Pdf

The definitive story of American health care today -- its causes, consequences, and confusions. In March 2010, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law. It was the most extensive reform of America's health care system since at least the creation of Medicare in 1965, and maybe ever. The ACA was controversial and highly political, and the law faced legal challenges reaching all the way to the Supreme Court; it even precipitated a government shutdown. It was a signature piece of legislation for President Obama's first term, and also a ball and chain for his second. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania who also served as a special adviser to the White House on health care reform, has written a brilliant diagnostic explanation of why health care in America has become such a divisive social issue, how money and medicine have their own -- quite distinct -- American story, and why reform has bedeviled presidents of the left and right for more than one hundred years. Emanuel also explains exactly how the ACA reforms are reshaping the health care system now. He forecasts the future, identifying six mega trends in health that will determine the market for health care to 2020 and beyond. His predictions are bold, provocative, and uniquely well-informed. Health care -- one of America's largest employment sectors, with an economy the size of the GDP of France -- has never had a more comprehensive or authoritative interpreter.