The $800 Million Pill
The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fascinating critical look at drug and biotech companies, Goozner pulls back the curtain on the process of new drug development and answers two important questions:"where do new drugs come from?" and"what do they cost to invent?" Using case studies that recount the discovery, development and eventual commercialization of a number of significant drugs, including Epogen and the AIDS cocktail, Goozner dismantles the pharmaceutical industry's assertion that drug prices must be kept high in order to stimulate cutting edge research. The cost of each new discovery averages $800 million, industry officials have claimed. But Goozner argues that citizens are already paying much of that bill: taxpayer-financed medical research, he finds, has played a major role in each important medical discovery. Goozner convincingly argues that new drugs get into the hands of the sick not thanks to drug and biotech companies, but to the passion of dedicated scientists--in both the private sector and the public. A former Chief Economics Correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and an award-winning journalist, Goozer writes with skill and elegance, incorporating anecdote and history in a way that enlivens his research and makes his book an engrossing read. Though the issue of drug costs has been discussed extensively in the media, Goozer's study puts all the political chatter, news coverage and analysts' reports into a context where they finally make sense.
