Today we present two outstanding resources on pharmaceuticals and the pharmaceutical industry
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I. Alan Sager, Ph.D., Professor of Health Services and Co-Director of the Health Reform Program at Boston University School of Public Health, on September 5, 2001, provided testimony before a subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce. His topic: "Americans would save $38 billion in 2001 if we paid Canadian prices for brand name prescription drugs." He describes "how to win those savings and use them to protect all Americans against high drug costs without hurting drug makers or drug research."
Alan Sager, Ph.D.:
"Together we face two challenges: making all needed medications available to all Americans at affordable prices, while building a durable financial foundation under drug research and delivery in the United States. I am convinced that we can do both of these. One reason is that we already spend enough money to do so. But not if we continue business as usual."
The full testimony (revised) is available at: <http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/ushealthreform.htm>http://dcc2.bumc.bu.edu/hs/ushealthreform.htm which brings you to a page, "US Health Reform." Under "A. Prescription Drug Reform," "3. Testimony," click on "AMERICANS WOULD SAVE $38 BILLION IN 2001 IF WE PAID CANADIAN PRICES FOR BRAND NAME PRESCRIPTION DRUGS."
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II. Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Senior Scholar at the Center for Ethics in Health Care at the Oregon Health Sciences University, has prepared an excellent series of slides in PowerPoint format on various aspects of the pharmaceutical industry, with special emphasis on ethical perspectives. The information provided is particularly valuable for those of us dedicated to health care reform. Dr. Donohoe has generously offered to make the series available to us. The slides are very easy to read and thus are valuable as a stand-alone information resource, not to mention their value in educational presentations. If you are interested, you can contact Dr. Donohoe at his e-mail address which appears at the end of his message below.
9/14/01
Dear Dr McCanne:
I am a member of PNHP and teach medical humanities and social justice ethics at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland; one area I often lecture on is the pharmaceutical industry (history, current practices, financial and legal issues, ethical issues, etc.) After serving on a panel at the Bioethics Summer Retreat earlier this year, a number of participants requested a copy of my PowerPoint presentation on the pharmaceutical industry. I offered to e-mail a copy of the presentation to anyone from the bioethics listserv who was interested and received over 50 responses.
Now that I see that PNHP is becoming more involved in the issue of pharm co marketing, I wonder if any members (or the organization) is interested in a copy of the presentation, which contains over 100 slides and covers the economics of the industry, drug R and D and marketing (incl data on advertising to physicians and DTC advertising), the history of drug regulation in the US, policy and ethical issues facing the FDA, companies under investigation for various violations (or who have pled guilty) and why, info on the worrisome sequelae of increasing collaboration between academia and industry, guidelines re gifts and speakers/CME, etc.
I am happy to share the slides and have no proprietary interest in the presentation, and hope it can be of help to those training students, residents, and practicing MDs. I feel there is too much competition and not enough cooperation in academic medicine/medical education.
The refs are literally a 2 and ½ foot stack in my office, and I will be working on the paper over the next year. In a nutshell, most of the info comes from mainstream med jnls (eg JAMA, NEJM, Annals Int Med, J Gen Int Med), with small amounts from Public Citizen's Health Research Group's Health Letter, PNHP's newsletter, or "mainstream" newspapers (e.g., NY Times).
If you think other members of this list or PNHP may be interested, please let me know and I can send them copies as an attachment. I would rather they contact me so that I can at least keep track of who is getting it and for what purpose they hope to use it. If you are interested in using me as a speaker for PNHP in some way, let me know, as I have also run a session on the single payer system, using PNHP data and slides, for our house staff.
Martin
Martin Donohoe, MD, FACP Assistant Professor of Medicine and Senior Scholar, Center for Ethics in Health Care Oregon Health Sciences University General Internal Medicine (L-475)
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road
Portland, OR 97225
503/494-6495 (ph) 503/494-6344 (fax)
donohoem@ohsu.edu