Reasonable Rx Solving the Drug Price Crisis

This book differs from the many other books and articles on this topic to take a longer and deeper look at the problem of high drug prices. It reviews the history of drug development, to explain how this window of opportunity was created, describe the industry that transferred new discoveries into drugs that could be swallowed, including how the government has been involved in this process from its inception. Finally, and most importantly, it presents a plan that could keep this window open for all our fellow citizens. The book explores this complicated topic from all angles. It begins by looking at drugs: the different classes of drugs, how they are developed, and how they make money. It then goes on to look at the industry as a whole, examining the forces, both domestically and abroad, that impact and define the industry. This is followed by disastrous past efforts to control drug prices in the form of Medicare part D, as well as a close look at the science of drug development. After explaining in more detail how the drug industry operates, how new drugs are discovered, and how the government affects and controls these processes, the book suggest how to lower drug prices. By examining recent changes in the pharmaceutical industry in more depth, the authors explain how more radical changes can both reduce prices and improve the flow of new drugs.

STAN FINKELSTEIN, M.D., is a Senior Research Scientist at MIT, Co- Director of the MIT Program on the Pharmaceutical Industry (POPI), and serves as a Senior Lecturer on Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.

 

PETER TEMIN, Ph.D., a widely cited economist and economic historian, is currently Elisha Gray II Professor of Economics and former head of the Economics Department at MIT. He is the author of Taking Your Medicine: Drug Regulation in the United States.