Prescription for the People An Activist’s Guide to Making Medicine Affordable for All / Fran Quigley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Quigley, Fran, 1962- author.

, NEH CARES grant, Author.

Contributor:

NEH CARES grant, funder.

Series:

Culture and politics of health care work.

The culture and politics of health care work

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Health care reform--United States.

Health care reform.

Pharmaceutical industry--United States.

Pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceutical policy--United States.

Pharmaceutical policy.

Drug accessibility--United States.

Drug accessibility.

Prescription pricing--United States.

Prescription pricing.

Drugs--Prices--United States.

Drugs.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (260 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Biography/History:

Fran Quigley is Clinical Professor and Director of the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University McKinney School of Law. He is the author of If We Can Win Here, also from Cornell, How Human Rights Can Build Haiti, and Walking Together, Walking Far. He is the cofounder of People of Faith for Access to Medicines, pfamrx.org.

Summary:

In Prescription for the People, Fran Quigley diagnoses our inability to get medicines to the people who need them and then prescribes the cure. He delivers a clear and convincing argument for a complete shift in the global and U.S. approach to developing and providing essential medicines-and a primer on how to make that change happen. Globally, 10 million people die each year because they are unable to pay for medicines that would save them. The cost of prescription drugs is bankrupting families and putting a strain on state and federal budgets. Patients' desperate need for affordable medicines clashes with the core business model of the powerful pharmaceutical industry, which maximizes profits whenever possible. It doesn't have to be this way. Patients and activists are aiming to make all essential medicines affordable by reclaiming medicines as a public good and a human right, instead of a profit-making commodity. In this book, Quigley demystifies statistics and terminology, offers solutions to the problems that block universal access to medicines, and provides a road map for activists wanting to make those solutions a reality.

Contents:

People everywhere are struggling to get the medicines they need

The United States has a drug problem

Millions of people are dying needlessly

Cancer patients face particularly deadly barriers to medicines

The current medicine system neglects many major diseases

Corporate research and development investments are exaggerated

The current system wastes billions on drug marketing

The current system compromises physician integrity and leads to unethical corporate behavior

Medicines are priced at whatever the market will bear

Pharmaceutical corporations reap history-making profits

The for-profit medicine arguments are patently false

Medicine patents are extended too far and too wide

Patent protectionism stunts the development of new medicines

Governments, not private corporations, drive medicine innovation

Taxpayers and patients pay twice for patented medicines

Medicines are a public good

Medicine patents are artificial, recent, and government-created

The United States and big pharma play the bully in extending patents

Pharma-pushed trade agreements steal the power of democratically elected governments

Current law provides opportunities for affordable generic medicines

There is a better way to develop medicines

Human rights law demands access to essential medicines.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2017.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501713910

1501713914

OCLC:

1017610502