• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

PNHP

  • Home
  • Contact PNHP
  • Join PNHP
  • Donate
  • PNHP Store
  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Local Chapters
    • Student chapters
    • Board of Directors
    • National Office Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
    • How do we pay for it?
    • History of Health Reform
    • Conservative Case for Single Payer
    • FAQs
    • Información en Español
  • Take Action
    • The Medicare for All Act of 2025
    • Moral Injury and Distress
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Reports & Proposals
    • Physicians’ Proposal
    • Medicare Advantage Equity Report
    • Medicaid Managed Care Report
    • Medicare Advantage Harms Report
    • Medicare Advantage Overpayments Report
    • Pharma Proposal
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
  • Member Resources
    • 2025 Annual Meeting
    • Member Interest Groups (MIGs)
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Slideshows
    • Newsletter
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Webinars
    • Host a Screening
    • Events Calendar
    • Join or renew your membership

The official blog of PNHP

Recruit Colleagues

Our physician members are in the unique position of being able to advocate for single-payer reform within the medical profession. We encourage our members to talk to their colleagues about improved Medicare for all, both within their institutions and within their medical societies.

PNHP brochure

Our tri-fold brochure offers a great introduction to single payer, and details the role PNHP plays in the national health care debate. Click HERE to access the brochure on our website, or request free copies from our store below:

Share our digital graphics

Our series of shareable images relates that PNHP can be a home for people who care about a wide range of health justice issues, all of which can be powerfully addressed through our single-payer activism. Download all 12 graphics HERE, and share them widely via text, email, or social media posts.

Connect with PNHP members in your community

PNHP has state and local chapters across the U.S. Click HERE to access a map that shows chapters and/or members in your area. Members who wish to become more involved should contact their local chapter leaders directly, and may also wish to contact or organizing team at organizer@pnhp.org regarding their specific interests.

Start a new PNHP chapter

If there is not an existing chapter in your community, we encourage you to start one! Consult this handy guide, or simply follow the steps below.

1) Contact PNHP at (312) 782-6006 or organizer@pnhp.org. Our national organizers will help you to identify PNHP members in your area to send an invitation to help form a chapter, and provide a start-up guide for your group.

2) Have an initial meeting of interested physicians, health professionals, and activists. Your group should discuss the following:

  • What does your chapter hope to accomplish? What kinds of leadership roles are needed to facilitate those actions?
  • How often will your chapter meet, and how?
  • What geographic area will your chapter cover?
  • How will your chapter be structured and how will your group make decisions?
  • How will your chapter grow? Who do you hope to recruit into your chapter?
  • What kinds of local groups/civic organizations will your chapter partner with, if any? Is there a process for working with other like-minded groups?

3) Create a “Chapter Charter.” A Chapter Charter is a statement of intent to the national headquarters of PNHP (see template HERE). The charter should be signed by at least five founding members, at least three of whom should be physicians. Send your signed charter to organizer@pnhp.org, fax to 312-782-6007, or send by mail to 29 E. Madison Street, Suite 1412, Chicago, IL 60602. Please indicate a primary contact for correspondence.

4) All signatories of the Chapter Charter should be members of PNHP, or join PNHP upon signing. Become a member HERE.

5) Begin planning a kick-off event, such as a film screening, panel discussion, or speaker. The organizing team at PNHP can help you with ideas, acquire the rights to show certain films, provide lists of members to invite, and help book speakers from PNHP. Check out the Get Active section of the PNHP website for more inspiration.

6) Join the PNHP monthly national conference calls. Email organizer@pnhp.org to make sure the announcement of your new chapter is on the agenda so we can recognize and welcome your group!

Looking to start a student chapter at your medical or health professional school? Click HERE for specific student chapter information.

The official blog of PNHP

2020 Virtual Annual Meeting

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, PNHP’s 2020 Annual Meeting was held virtually over Zoom. Because of the unique format, we are able to offer archival video of our keynotes, panel discussions, and workshops (full agenda below).

If you registered prior to our Nov. 13 and 14 live sessions, you should have received an email with a link to these recordings. If you did not register prior to the meeting, you may do so now at a discounted rate of $10.


Register HERE to access archival video


Public sessions—please share widely!

Due to popular demand, PNHP is making the following recordings available to everybody, free of charge. These sessions contain invaluable insights and information to help advocates push for health justice. Please watch them today, and share them widely!

“Pandemics + Policing + Protest” presented by Dr. Rhea Boyd
(Download slideshow here)

“Health Policy Update” presented by Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein

Full conference agenda

Archived versions of the following sessions are available to all conference attendees. If you didn’t register prior to the meeting, it’s not too late! You may register HERE at a discounted rate ($10, or $50 if you would like CME credit).

Live sessions

  • Opening keynote address from Sara Nelson, international president of the 50,000-member Association of Flight Attendants and an outspoken proponent of Medicare for All
  • Panel discussion: Post-election analysis with Dr. Adam Gaffney, president of PNHP; Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen; and Stephanie Kang, health policy advisor to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal
  • Health policy update and discussion with PNHP co-founders Drs. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein
  • Panel discussion: Next steps for single payer with Dr. Claudia Fegan, national coordinator of PNHP; Dr. Adam Gaffney, president of PNHP; Dr. Susan Rogers, president-elect of PNHP; and Rachel Madley, national executive board member with Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP)
  • Closing keynote address from Dr. Rhea Boyd, pediatrician, public health advocate, and scholar

Pre-recorded workshops

  • “Health policy update 2020,” presented by Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., co-founder, Physicians for a National Health Program; Distinguished Professor, CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College; lecturer, Harvard Medical School
  • “Single payer: How it works and why we need it now, Now, NOW,” presented by Sanjeev Sriram, M.D., M.P.H., project founder, All Means All Campaign at Social Security Works; pediatrician, Children’s National Medical Center; assistant professor, George Washington University School of Medicine
  • “COVID-19 and the failure of employer sponsored health insurance,” presented by Adam Gaffney, M.D., M.P.H., president, Physicians for a National Health Program; critical care and pulmonary physician, Cambridge Health Alliance; instructor in medicine, Harvard Medical School
  • “Why we have health inequities: historical context,” presented by Susan Rogers, M.D., president-elect, Physicians for a National Health Program; retired hospitalist, Stroger Hospital of Cook County; assistant professor, Rush Medical College
  • “Anti-racism and the development of a single-payer health care system,” presented by Amy J. (AJ) Garvey, M.D., national working group member, White Coats for Black Lives; interventional and diagnostic radiology resident, Emory University School of Medicine
  • “Reproductive health, abortion access, and single payer,” presented by Linda Prine, M.D., co-founder and medical director, Reproductive Health Access Project
  • “LGBTQ+ health,” presented by Lin-Fan Wang, M.D., medical director, Pride Program at Einstein Healthcare Network
  • “Canada’s experience with COVID-19 and reflections for the U.S.,” presented by Karen Palmer, M.P.H., M.S., adjunct professor, Simon Fraser University; board adviser, Physicians for a National Health Program
  • “Economics of single payer,” presented by James G. Khan, M.D., M.P.H., emeritus professor, University of California San Francisco
  • “The quest for health care reform: implications of market commodity,” presented by Walter Tsou, M.D., M.P.H., past president, American Public Health Association; former health commissioner, City of Philadelphia; adjunct professor, University of Pennsylvania Center for Public Health Initiatives; board adviser, Physicians for a National Health Program
  • “Single payer and pharmacy,” presented by Shannon Rotolo, Pharm.D., clinical pharmacy specialist, University of Chicago Medicine; founding member, Pharmacists for Single Payer; steering committee member, Physicians for a National Health Program-Illinois chapter
  • “Moving the medical establishment through resolutions,” presented by Michael Kaplan, M.D., family physician and site director, Community Health Programs; vice chair, American Academy of Family Physicians Single-Payer Health Care Member Interest Group

Student and Resident Scholarships

Students and residents who are interested in participating in the 2020 Annual Meeting were invited to register free of charge.

Non-student members can support PNHP’s student outreach programs by making a donation to the Nicholas Skala Student Activist Fund today.

2018 SNaHP Summit Materials

SNaHP 2018

On March 3, 2018, medical and health professional students from across the U.S. gathered in New Orleans for the 7th annual Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP) Summit. To access a selection of slideshows and handouts from the Summit, please see below. To read highlights from the Summit published in the (Baton Rouge, La.) Advocate, click here. To view photos from the Summit, visit our Flickr page.

We also encouraged members to post to social media using the hashtag #SNaHP2018. Click here to read member tweets, and be sure to follow SNaHP on Facebook and Twitter.

Presentation Materials

Welcome & Single Payer Update
By Armide Storey & Andy Hyatt
Download slideshow here

Single Payer: The Cure for Our Health System’s Ills
By Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.
Download slideshow here

Single Payer 101
By Tony Spadaro & Erin Hollander
Download slideshow here

Single Payer SOAP Notes: Advocating on the Wards
By Bryant Shuey
Download slideshow here

Structural Competency in Medical Education
By Matthew Musselman
Download slideshow here

Civil Disobedience and the Role of Advanced Actions in Activism
By Vanessa Van Doren & Augie Lindmark
Download slideshow here

Making the Most of Media: How to Amplify Your Voice, Spark Conversation, and Build Momentum
By Frances Gill
Download slideshow here

Starting & Maintaining a SNaHP Chapter
By Justin McKone & Michael Zingman
Download handouts here and here

Turning Activism into Art
By Shirlene Obuobi
Download slideshow here

Birddogging 101
By Keanan McGonigle & Matt Moy
Download slideshow here

You Say You Want a Resolution…
By Brad Zehr   
Download handout here

Bringing Conservatives to Single Payer
By Ashley Duhon & Kale Flory
Download slideshow here

Organizing on a Time Crunch: #RighttoHealth Action Walkthrough

By Cyrus Alvi, Hans Strobl, Maria Mihalescu & Paige-Ashley Campbell
Download slideshow here

Nimble Solutions for Overcoming Health Disparity in the Creative Community: Enticement, Engagement and Empowerment
By Bethany Bultman; President and Director, New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic
Download slideshow here

Keynote Addresses

Single Payer: The Cure for Our Health System’s Ills
By Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.; Co-founder, PNHP

Nimble Solutions for Overcoming Health Disparity in the Creative Community: Enticement, Engagement and Empowerment
By Bethany Bultman; President and Director, New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic

Single Payer Second Line

Once the afternoon workshops were completed, Summit attendees marched in a “second line” to New Orleans City Hall to demand single-payer reform. SNaHP members wore their white coats and scrubs, waved “Medicare for all” signs, and danced to the rhythm of a brass band. The first part of the march was documented on Facebook Live.

Media Coverage

Medical Students hold Universal Health Care March in New Orleans
WWL-TV, CBS 4, New Orleans, March 3, 2018

Medical students march through New Orleans for universal healthcare
WVUE-TV, FOX 8, New Orleans, March 4, 2018

Medical students second line in support of universal health care
WDSU-TV, NBC 6, New Orleans, March 7, 2018

“As a future physician, I want to practice in a system that provides universal coverage and real autonomy for medical professionals and patients alike,” said Ashley Duhon, a second-year medical student based in New Orleans. Continue reading…

Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system: economic analysis and supplemental materials

Physicians for a National Health Program and Canadian Doctors for Medicare have joined forces to develop a landmark proposal, “Healing an Ailing Pharmaceutical System: Prescription for Reform in the United States and Canada.” Below, please find an economic analysis and supplemental materials related to the proposal. To read media coverage of the proposal, click here. You may also wish to read and/or distribute our one-page handout, which includes a useful summary of the proposal.

Table 7

One-page handout: Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system

Slideshow: Prescription for Pharmaceutical Reform by Ed Weisbart, M.D.

Table 1: Examples of problems in drug access and pricing in the US and Canada

Table 2: Global evidence of lagging innovation in the drug development process

Table 3: Examples of problems in industry-sponsored clinical trial design

Table 4: Examples of problems in drug approval and regulation

Table 5: Examples of problems in postmarketing surveillance of drugs

Table 6: Examples of problems in drug promotion

Table 7: Estimated effects of proposed reforms on U.S. national pharmaceutical expenditures, 2017 (includes methodology)

Tables 1-7: References

PNHP pharma reform proposal in the news

Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system highlights the need for fundamental reform

Healing an Ailing Pharmaceutical System: Prescription for Reform in the United States and Canada was unveiled May 17, 2018 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (To read the full proposal, click here. To read PNHP’s press release on the proposal, click here.) Please see below for a sampling of the substantial media coverage related to the proposal.


Video summary


Introductory press conference


Webinar by Dr. Adam Gaffney


News coverage

How to fix the American drug industry
By Ryan Cooper
The Week, May 17, 2018
In America, medication is extremely expensive — and it’s getting worse. Stories of Wall Street bloodsuckers snatching up the patent on some lifesaving drug and jacking up the price by many thousands of percent are routine Continue reading…

Doctors in Canada and US call for ‘fundamental reform’ on prescription drug prices
By Cherise Seucharan
The Toronto Star, May 17, 2018
A new report written by doctors in Canada and the U.S. is calling for major reforms to lower the price of drugs. Published in the British Medical Journal, the report is the result of a two year-study by the U.S./Canadian Pharmaceutical Policy Reform Working Group. Continue reading…

7 Reforms Needed To Cure America’s Sick Ailing Pharmaceutical System
Interview with Dr. Adam Gaffney
The Katie Halper Show, TYT Interviews, June 11, 2018
Pharmaceutical proposal co-author and PNHP secretary Dr. Adam Gaffney makes the case for comprehensive reform that addresses drug development and safety in addition to negotiating prices and guaranteeing access. Watch video…

US doctors propose universal health care to fix ‘dysfunctional’ system
By Ellen Daniel
Pharmaceutical Technology News, May 17, 2018
A group of 21 doctors from the US and Canada has published a proposal aimed at ensuring access to ‘safe, innovative, and affordable’ medications. Continue reading…

Rebuking Industry-Friendly Trump Plan, Doctors Offer Blueprint to Confront ‘Greed of Big Pharma’
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams, May 17, 2018
After President Donald Trump conclusively demonstrated last week that he is unwilling to take on the pharmaceutical industry and has no “legitimate plan” to lower drug prices, a group of 21 American and Canadian doctors on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan. Continue reading…

Can an Obscure, 100-Year-Old Patent Law Take On Big Pharma?
By Jacquie Lee
Bloomberg, May 21 2018
Proposed solutions for lowering drug prices typically hinge on sweeping transformations within the drug-supply chain, but what if there’s a more immediate solution? There is, according to Sidney Wolfe, founder of Public Citizen’s health research group. Continue reading…


Opinion pieces

Trump’s plan won’t lower prescription drug prices. Ours would.
By Adam Gaffney, M.D.
Washington Post, May 23, 2018
The drug price reforms that President Trump recently proposed are as potent as a placebo, but not as harmless. Trump once blustered that drug firms were “getting away with murder,” but his real-life plan caused pharmaceutical stocks to surge. Continue reading…

No, raising drug prices in Canada will not help the U.S.
By Joel Lexchin
National Post (Toronto), May 18, 2018
Donald Trump’s solution to soaring American drug prices is to have other countries, such as Canada, raise their prices. This is not a new position; American officials have been advocating this approach for at least the past 15 years. Continue reading…

Only a healthy democracy will save us from Big Pharma
By Ed Weisbart, M.D.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 8, 2018
I’m a physician who volunteers in safety-net clinics in St. Louis, constantly seeing patients who can’t afford the medicines I prescribe. Even patients with insurance often can’t afford their co-pays and deductibles, and many treatments simply aren’t covered by their plans. Continue reading…

2016 Annual Meeting Materials

Highlights are available here.

Find below a selection of slideshows and handouts from PNHP’s 2016 Annual Meeting.
Photos from the Annual Meeting are available here.

Grand Rounds Morning Presentation
By David Himmelstein, M.D., and Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.
Download slideshow here

Grand Rounds (Alternate Visuals)
By Ed Weisbart, M.D.
Download slideshow here

The 2016 Election: Implications for Healthcare
By Michael Lighty, National Nurses United
Download slideshow here

Health Equity After 2016
By Mary T. Bassett, M.D., M.P.H.
Download slideshow here

Organizing in your Specialty and Medical Society
By Andrea DeSantis, D.O., Richard Bruno, M.D., and Michael Kaplan, M.D.
Download slideshow here

Unions: A Response to Profit-Driven Medicine
By Roona Ray, M.D., M.P.H., A.A.H.I.V.S.
Download slideshow here

Minnesota Single Payer Report
By Rose Roach, Minnesota Nurses Association
Download slideshow here

Oregon Single Payer Report
By Mike Huntington, M.D.
Download slideshow here

Building Support for Single Payer Legislation in Congress
By Danielle Alexander, M.D.
Download slideshow here

Turning Threats to Medicare and Medicaid Into Organizing Opportunities
By Ed Weisbart, M.D., and MN state Sen. John Marty
Download slideshow here

Abortion Access and PNHP
By Linda Prine, M.D., and Diljeet Singh, M.D., Dr.P.H.
Download slideshow here

The Physicians Proposal for a National Pharmaceutical Program
By Adam Gaffney, M.D., David Himmelstein, M.D., Joel Lexchin, M.D., Gordy Schiff, M.D., and Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H.
Download slideshow here

Universal, Quality, Lifetime and Affordable Health Insurance: A Roadmap that Won’t Bankrupt Us (Leadership Training)
By Robert Zarr, M.D.
Download slideshow here

Creating and Delivering Compelling Presentations on Single Payer (Leadership Training)
By Ed Weisbart, M.D., and Claudia Fegan, M.D.
Download slideshow here

A Beginner’s Guide to Media Outreach (Leadership Training)
By Jessica Schorr Saxe, M.D.
Download slideshow here

Building Successful Social Media Campaigns (Leadership Training)
By Bryant Shuey (adapted from Dustin Calliari’s 2015 presentation)
Download slideshow here

PNHP leaders join Sen. Sanders in Canada

Shortly after introducing the “Medicare for All Act of 2017,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) traveled to Canada to gain new insight about its single-payer health care system. He was accompanied by several medical professionals, including PNHP national coordinator Dr. Claudia Fegan and national board member Dr. Richard Bruno.

During this trip, Canadians expressed pride in a system that covers everybody while spending far less per capita than their neighbors in the U.S. Patients and doctors alike expressed dismay at the notion that Americans could be bankrupted by a serious illness, and that many uninsured and under-insured Americans forego care altogether.

Sen. Sanders concluded the trip with a rousing speech at the University of Toronto on Sunday, October 29, which can be viewed above. Footage of the event starts at 12:20, Sen. Sanders takes the stage at 28:40, and Sen. Sanders participates in a brief interview with noted Canadian activist Dr. Danielle Martin at 1:04:00.

PNHP press release:
https://pnhp.org…

“Lessons from Canada” videos:
https://www.facebook.com…

“Phantoms in the Snow” study debunking Canada myths:
http://www.healthaffairs.org…

***

Drs. Fegan and Bruno reflect on the trip

***

Photos from Toronto

Clockwise from upper-left: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Dr. Claudia Fegan & Dr. Danielle Martin tour Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto; Sen. Sanders & Dr. Fegan; Sen. Sanders addresses U.S. & Canadian press w/ Dr. Richard Bruno; Sen. Sanders & Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne; Sen. Sanders speaks at the University of Toronto; Sen. Sanders & Dr. Martin. Photo credit: office of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vox, and New York Times.

***

Media Coverage

What Did Bernie Sanders Learn in His Weekend in Canada?
By Margot Sanger-Katz
New York Times, November 2, 2017
As he tells it, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont fell in love with the Canadian health system 20 years ago when he brought a busload of his constituents across the border to buy cheaper prescription drugs. Now he wants to make Americans fall in love with his proposal to make the United States system a lot more like Canada’s. Continue reading…

What Canada taught Bernie Sanders about health care
By Sarah Kliff
Vox, October 31, 2017
In late October, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took a flight from Washington, DC, to Toronto. He sat in a cramped seat in the 21st row of the small plane. “I’m here to learn about your health care system,” Sanders told a woman behind him who asked for a selfie, shortly after the plane touched down in Canada. Continue reading…

What Corporate Media Failed to Learn About Canadian Single-Payer
By Michael Corcoran
FAIR, November 10, 2017
When it was announced that several journalists would travel with Sen. Bernie Sanders in October for a hospital tour of Canada to learn about its single-payer system, one question immediately sprang to mind:  What would corporate media do to smear universal healthcare this time? Continue reading…

Bernie Sanders compares U.S. health-care struggles to rights movements
By Theresa Boyle and Alex McKeen
Toronto Star, October 29, 2017
American Senator Bernie Sanders says insurance and drug companies, and those with extreme wealth, are hurting health care in the United States and warned Canadians not to allow that to happen on this side of the border. Continue reading…

Bernie Sanders speaks at Con Hall
By Jack O. Denton
The Varsity, October 30, 2017
Convocation Hall buzzed with energy the morning of October 29. Senator from Vermont and former Democratic presidential nominee Bernie Sanders was in town to give a talk titled “What the U.S. Can Learn from Canadian Health Care” to a packed house at the University of Toronto. Continue reading…

We went with Bernie Sanders to a magical place

NowThisPolitics, November 11, 2017
We went to Canada with Bernie Sanders to learn how universal health care works for real people. After speaking with Canadian patients, Sen. Sanders concluded that the U.S. “should not be the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a right.” View video…

Postcard From Canada: In The Land Of Single-Payer, Bernie Sanders Gets Hero’s Welcome
By Shefali Luthra
Kaiser Health News, October 30, 2017
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wasn’t scheduled to come onstage to talk health care until after 11 a.m. But college students started lining up as early as 5 a.m. — the Sunday morning of Halloween weekend, no less — in the hopes of scoring what appeared to be the weekend’s hot ticket. Continue reading…

Bernie Sanders Enlists Canada To Make The Case For Universal Health Care
By Daniel Marans
HuffPost, October 30, 2017
When Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) arrived at the University of Toronto’s Simcoe Hall around 10:40 am on Sunday ahead of his sold-out speech on health care and progressive politics, the college students who had lined up outside in the 45-degree weather for standby tickets began to holler with joy. Continue reading…

Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system: prescription for reform for U.S. and Canada

Our pharmaceutical systems are broken, and only fundamental reform can ensure universal access to safer, more innovative, and more affordable drugs

By Adam Gaffney, instructor in medicine 1, Joel Lexchin professor emeritus 2, US, Canadian Pharmaceutical Policy Reform Working Group
BMJ, Analysis, May 2018

To read the full proposal, see below or visit the BMJ website.

To access our economic analysis and supplemental materials, click here.

To read PNHP’s press release, click here.

To read and view media coverage of the proposal, click here.

Click on each section to see text.

Introduction

Drugs are among medicine’s most powerful tools. Yet the pharmaceutical systems of the United States and Canada are mired in dysfunction. The industry’s pricing practices—charging whatever the market will bear, especially in the US—strain budgets and put vital medicines out of reach for many patients.1-4 Despite some notable advances, the industry’s overall rate of real innovation remains incommensurate with our vast drug spending; many new drugs are marketed each year but few represent substantial clinical improvements.5-7 And commercial imperatives distort drug trials,8 research priorities, and drug regulation.9,10

While many recognize the need for change, proposed remedies vary3,11-13 and would fall short of achieving the fundamental reform that these deficiencies call for. The advocacy organization Physicians for a National Health Program therefore encouraged a working group of US and Canadian doctors, scholars, and advocates (the US/Canadian Pharmaceutical Policy Reform Working Group) to come together to craft a wide ranging reform proposal for both nations. Although political circumstances, including the influence of the pharmaceutical lobby, make full implementation of these reforms unlikely at present, shifting political winds may bring a more favorable policy climate. Hence, the working group aimed to craft an ambitious proposal for pharmaceutical reform to set an agenda for the future, including insurance coverage, pricing, drug development, clinical testing, regulatory approval, postmarketing monitoring, and promotion.

Although some of our recommendations (box 1) could be implemented within the existing US healthcare financing framework, full implementation would require a universal single payer system. Canada already has a single payer system but it would still require reforms because the system fully covers hospital and doctors’ services but not drugs out of hospital.14,15

Our proposal rests on six principles:

  • Medical needs, not financial means, should determine access to medications
  • Drugs must be affordable to society
  • Drug development should be geared toward real innovation that maximizes population health
  • The human right to health16 must take precedence over intellectual property rights (patents)
  • The safety and effectiveness of medications must be independently and rigorously evaluated
  • Comprehensive and unbiased information on drugs should be available to prescribers and patients.17

Summary of proposed pharmaceutical reforms

Access to prescription drugs

The right to essential medications is often compromised in both the US and Canada (fig 1). High out-of-pocket costs leave millions unable to fill prescriptions14,15,18 and drive many into bankruptcy.19,20 In the US an estimated 28 million people remain uninsured for healthcare,21 while 3.5 million in Canada lack drug coverage.14

Cost sharing (copayments, deductibles, and co-insurance) also impedes access on both sides of the border.15,22 It reduces needed and unnecessary care to similar degrees23; is a factor in reduced adherence24,25; and, for some conditions, exacerbates racial disparities in health,26 raises non-drug healthcare spending, and worsens outcomes.24,26 Notably, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland have been able to provide universal drug coverage without cost sharing while using other cost control mechanisms to hold drug spending well below US or Canadian levels.27,28

To improve access and population health, we propose universal,29 first dollar coverage (full insurance with no cost sharing) of all medically necessary drugs, echoing Archie Cochrane’s famous invocation that “all effective treatments must be free.”30 Each nation should establish a national formulary of covered drugs, which should include all medications shown to improve the length or quality of life—or the safest, most effective, and least expensive option when equivalent agents are available. A national technology assessment office would provide data on comparative effectiveness to guide formulary decisions. When clinically appropriate—eg, for allergies or other unique circumstances—off-formulary drugs should also be covered.

Drug prices

Spending on outpatient drugs is higher in the US ($1026 (£742; €833) per capita annually) and Canada ($713) than in other nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (averaging $515, and as low as $240 in Denmark).27 High prices (especially in the US) rather than high use explain these differences. For example, in 2014 a daily 50 unit dose of insulin glargine cost $186.38 a month in the US (after applicable discounts) versus $63.65 in the UK and $46.60 in France.31

Despite claims to the contrary, research and development costs cannot justify these high prices.32 For instance, the total research and development expenditures of 10 firms that recently introduced new cancer drugs amounted to $9bn, while those drugs generated $67bn in revenues.33 Drug firms continue to sharply increase US prices decades after recouping development costs,1,34-36 and their mean profits are consistently threefold higher than the average of other Fortune 500 firms—23% v 7% in 2016.37

Several steps could reduce drug prices while ensuring that no uniquely effective medications are withheld. Each nation’s regulatory agency would continue to approve drugs without regard to price. Once approved, however, a public agency would negotiate with manufacturers over prices, guided (in part) by comparative effectiveness data. Experience internationally, and in the US, indicates that such negotiations can lower prices38—probably by about 50% for branded drugs in the US.27,39-41

While negotiations and a national formulary could reduce prices for many medications, when patented drugs lack competitors firms could still demand unreasonable prices, forcing nations to exclude the drug or strain their budgets.42,43 Hence, additional options to assure reasonable pricing are necessary (fig 2). For instance, if price negotiations over branded drugs failed, governments would issue a compulsory license to allow generic manufacturing, a mechanism already sanctioned under international trade law,44 US patent law,45 and the Bayh-Dole Act.46 Indeed, in 2001, both the Bush (US)44,47 and Chretien (Canada) administrations,48 facing fears of anthrax bioterrorism, threatened to break the patent on ciprofloxacin, causing Bayer to lower the price.

In some circumstances, however, even compulsory licensing might not give reasonable prices; the cost of some generic drugs has soared after sole generic manufacturers cornered the market.1,35 We thus advocate creating public manufacturing capacity to produce drugs when no reasonably priced option is available. This capacity could also augment production during public health emergencies or drug shortages.49

Finally, drugs developed through public funding by public entities would remain unpatented and available for generic manufacture worldwide at greatly reduced cost.

Preclinical drug development

The patent protection and market exclusivity that prop up drug prices are typically portrayed as critical to encourage innovation. This portrayal is misleading for two reasons.

Firstly, despite achieving some important advances, the drug industry’s record on innovation is derisory relative to its vast revenues and profits.50 Most new drugs offer little new besides higher cost,2,6,7,51-55 while firms often extend market exclusivity through trivial modifications and secondary patenting.56,57

Secondly, it is far from clear that patents are the most important stimulus to therapeutic advance. Throughout history, curiosity and the intrinsic rewards of discovery, rather than financial incentives, have often driven scientific breakthroughs. Even today, most basic research underlying later drug innovation is carried out in non-profit or public institutions and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Before the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, the fruits of publicly funded research remained in the public domain in the US. Since 1980, however, publicly funded researchers have been allowed to patent their discoveries and sell them to drug firms,58 as occurred with the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir. Although Bayh-Dole permits government to break the patents of such drugs, this provision has never been used.46

Thus, we propose the repeal of Bayh-Dole to keep drugs developed with public funding in the public domain. Meanwhile, for drugs developed fully by the private sector, the patent system should be reformed to encourage innovative drugs, not more look alike, “me-too” agents.

In the US, the criteria for issuing drug patents have been stretched far beyond the original requirement that a patentable discovery had to be useful, novel, and non-obvious.57,59 As others have argued,3,60,61 patent reforms could both lower prices and advance innovation. Minor variations or combinations of existing agents, drug isomers,3 and tweaks to drug delivery devices that don’t add important functionality should not be patentable. Some countries have already mandated similar restrictions.62

Because the reforms we advocate risk reducing incentives for industry to develop marketable products from important new discoveries, we propose creating institutes for prescription drug development within the NIH and CIHR. The new institutes would have two divisions: for drug innovation and for clinical trials (fig 2). The drug innovation division would focus on the development of non-patentable agents to the point of clinical trials. This “public track” would—alongside private research—fund the development of novel pharmaceuticals. We propose public funding equal to about half of current preclinical private sector investment. All novel molecules developed by the division would remain in the public domain. This approach is a form of “delinkage” of drug development and pricing that others have proposed.63,64

The drug innovation divisions might do some drug development themselves but would mostly fund efforts by academic or other non-commercial investigators. Priority would be given to potential drugs with the most clinical value, focusing on diseases that are neglected, commercially unprofitable, lacking effective treatments, or important for public health. The new, unpatented agents could be produced as generics by companies anywhere—a major advance for global health.

Clinical testing

Industry sponsored clinical trials have sometimes used unsound methods and reported incomplete findings, calling into question the interpretability, and sometimes the veracity, of their conclusions on safety and efficacy.8 For instance, trials have compared new agents with placebos rather than the best existing therapies, underdosed comparator drugs, or relied on surrogate endpoints65 that may not predict outcomes. Some commercially funded researchers have also selectively published (and republished) positive results8,66 or concealed negative findings,67 while firms have ended trials prematurely for purely commercial reasons.68

Meanwhile, corporate ownership of trial data can obscure safety problems and impede further research.69 Although requiring preregistration of trials has been an important step forward, transparency problems persist.70

Drug regulatory agencies must therefore raise evidentiary standards. Trials should, whenever possible, compare new agents to existing therapies and use a superiority design to discourage investment in unneeded me-too drugs. When new agents mimic existing ones, they should generally be tested in patients who do not respond to (or tolerate) existing products. And with infrequent exceptions, trials should assess hard clinical (rather than surrogate) outcomes.71 Anonymized patient level data from all trials (including older trials), should be made publicly available70 (whether or not a drug gains approval) to facilitate accountability and further research.

Finally, because of concerns regarding the objectivity of industry funded trials and the need to test unpatented and unprofitable therapies, the clinical trials divisions within the new NIH and CIHR institutes would also fund and oversee trials (fig 2).69,72 The divisions would select promising molecules developed by non-profit laboratories, academic investigators, and drug companies for clinical trials, which would mainly be designed and conducted by non-commercial investigators. They might also fund trials assessing new indications for existing agents or non-drug therapies.

Publicly funded trials would offer important benefits: minimizing commercial conflicts of interest; redirecting research from “me-too” drugs toward real innovations, and facilitating the development of unprofitable but essential treatments.69,72 Although firms could still fund trials of their products,72 because clinical trials are costly and would be subject to enhanced regulatory scrutiny (based on past evidence of companies manipulating results), publicly funded trials would be likely to predominate in the long term.

Drug approval reform

Canadian and US regulatory agencies too often allow unsafe drugs to reach the market73-76 and inadequately monitor them after approval.77-79 Both agencies’ independence has been eroded by their reliance, starting in the 1990s, on funding from fees paid by drug companies. In the US, the FDA’s receipt of these funds is explicitly linked to its shortening of review times.73,75

Meanwhile, an increasing proportion of new drugs qualify for programs that further reduce review times. By 2014, 69% of drugs submitted to the FDA gained “expedited review” through various designations or pathways.80 The comparable figure for Canada for 1997-2012 was 26%.81 Although intended to accelerate the availability of innovative agents, these programs have been exploited to speed the marketing of many “me-too” drugs.7,80 Some of these expedited review pathways have weaker standards of evidence. The recently enacted 21st Century Cures Act in the US creates even more such pathways, and mandates that the FDA evaluate the potential use of “real world evidence”— ie, not from clinical trials—for approving new indications for drugs.82,83

Such evidentiary changes may increase the risk that unsafe drugs will enter the market.76,84 And most,73-75,85,86 but not all,84 studies suggest that shorter review times are deleterious.

We propose several reforms to the drug approval process: Firstly, industry funding of drug regulatory agencies should be ended; governments should fully fund agency budgets. Secondly, expedited review should be reserved for drugs likely to offer genuine clinical advances. For instance, “first in class” drugs should not automatically qualify for expedited approval since many are not superior to existing products.7 Thirdly, requirements that trials use hard clinical endpoints and active comparators should be waived only in exceptional circumstances. Fourthly, while experts who receive commercial funding may appropriately offer testimony before advisory panels evaluating drugs, such experts should not be allowed to participate in the panels’ voting or decision making.87 Finally, drugs should be required to demonstrate superiority—whether in efficacy, safety, or convenience of dosing or administration—over any existing agents to be eligible for market exclusivity.

Postmarketing surveillance

As regulatory agencies have approved more drugs based on surrogate endpoints and smaller or fewer clinical trials, they have often mandated postmarketing studies to confirm benefits or exclude serious risks.77 However, this approach has serious shortcomings. Though large postmarketing studies are critical to assuring safety (especially for rare side effects), they should not be an excuse for weakening preapproval safety requirements. And while big data approaches to pharmacosurveillance (eg, the FDA Sentinel System) hold promise, their results to date are modest and cannot substitute for clinical trials.88

Unfortunately, enforcement of mandated postmarketing studies is currently lax. The FDA has failed to fully use its authority to penalize firms that don’t complete such studies,77,78 while Health Canada has allowed firms to continue marketing drugs for years without completing required trials.79

We propose several reforms to upgrade postmarketing safety efforts. Funding for such efforts within the FDA and Health Canada should be increased to a level on par with spending for review of new drug applications, and safety offices should have equal position in these agencies’ hierarchies to offices tasked with drug approval. Safety monitoring offices should be empowered to independently order safety warnings and remove unsafe drugs from the market, and agencies should use their legal authority more aggressively to pursue drug companies that fail to complete required postmarketing studies on time. Finally, information about delays must be made publicly available.

Some of these reforms could be accomplished without legislation: since 2007, for instance, the FDA has had authority to penalize companies that failed to conduct timely postmarketing studies. Yet it has not exercised that power in any meaningful way.78 Recent legislation allows Health Canada to levy substantial fines in case of company non-compliance.89

Promotion

Drug promotion—including industry “detailing” of physicians’ offices—consumes billions of dollars annually, more than total expenditure on medical student education in the US90-92; expenditures for sales and marketing exceed those for research and development.13 In addition to diverting funds that might be better used to develop lifesaving medications, such promotion is often misleading or inaccurate.93-95 This is especially true for direct-to-consumer advertising (DTC)—now widespread in the US96 and, in attenuated form, Canada.97 Advertising that mentions the brand name of a prescription-only medicine along with its indication is banned in all other developed nations except New Zealand.

Promotional spending dwarfs the tiny budgets of the FDA and Health Canada components that regulate marketing. The FDA is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of materials to review,98,99 and Health Canada has delegated most of the regulatory oversight of promotion to third parties.97

We propose a major expansion of promotional review. Regulatory agencies need more (and more predictable) resources to carry out rigorous assessments of all promotional materials.99 They should not have to rely on funding contingent on meeting deadlines to complete reviews, which can foster a lenient approach, and money should come only from government to avoid conflicts of interest.99

Improved monitoring should be coupled with stiffer sanctions for misleading or off-label promotion. In the past, even massive fines haven’t deterred industry violations100 because, as one expert noted, “When you’re selling $1 billion a year or more of a drug, it’s very tempting for a company to just ignore the traffic ticket and keep speeding.”101 Hence, authorities should be empowered to suspend firms’ right to promote their products or, in extreme cases, pursue criminal complaints against drug executives.

While we also favor prohibiting direct-to-consumer advertising and industry detailing, constitutional challenges based on “commercial speech” rights may preclude such bans in the US.102 However, other tools are clearly constitutional, such as eliminating tax deductions for promotional activities; additionally, when alternative treatments are available, drugs promoted in these fashions might be excluded from the formulary. Industry detailing could also be countered by not-for-profit “academic detailing”103 to optimize physician prescribing practices.104

Finally, industry funding can bias continuing medical education (CME)105 and clinical guidelines.106 Licensing authorities should not accept industry funded CME for mandated credits. CME could, instead, be undertaken and coordinated by a body similar to the Australian NPS MedicineWise (www.nps.org.au), while clinical guideline development should, at a minimum, follow the recommendations outlined by the Institute of Medicine.107

Economics of a national pharmaceutical program

Although our proposal would have large economic and budgetary implications, a detailed examination of those effects is beyond the scope of this article. Others have estimated that a national pharmaceutical program for Canada could save $7.3bn of the $22bn currently spent annually on prescription drugs in that nation, although that estimate did not contemplate the new investments in drug research, development, and regulation that we advocate.108 For the US, we believe that savings on drug prices through the mechanisms detailed above could fully offset the added costs of universal, first dollar drug coverage and new public investments that we recommend.

Achieving change

Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, eschewed patenting, declaring: “Could you patent the sun?” Today, in contrast, profiteering too often reigns, to the detriment of population health.

Our proposal calls for a fundamental reorientation of drug policy: it would make drugs more affordable for patients and society, promote innovation, strengthen efforts to assure the safety and effectiveness of medications, and upgrade the evidence available to prescribers and the public. Because drugs developed through the proposed new public pathways would remain in the public domain, they could be produced generically throughout the world, benefiting many nations.

The reforms we advocate face formidable political opposition, especially from drug firms, with those in the Fortune 500 in the US alone making total profits of $67.7bn in 2016.37 However, most Americans—both Democrats and Republicans—now favor government action to lower drug prices,109 and 91% of Canadians support a universal pharmaceutical benefit.110 These are unmistakable popular mandates for change. The trail from sentiment to policy will doubtless be arduous. Yet history is replete with examples of sweeping reforms—often enabled by unpredictable shifts in political circumstances—that overcame entrenched interests. We aim with this proposal to provide a blueprint for reform that anticipates—and may kindle—transformative changes in our nations’ pharmaceutical systems.

Contributors and sources

This proposal was drafted by a writing committee comprising Adam Gaffney (cochair), Joel Lexchin (cochair), Marcia Angell, Michael Carome, David U Himmelstein, Gordon D Schiff, Sidney M Wolfe, and Steffie Woolhandler. Other members of the US/Canadian Pharmaceutical Policy Reform Working Group were: Brook Baker, Monika Dutt, Marc-André Gagnon, Gordon Guyatt, Ritika Goel, Brian Hutchison, Richard Klasa, Michael C Klein, Danielle Martin, Barbara Mintzes, Karen S Palmer, Danyaal Raza, and Robert F Woollard.

Competing interests: We have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: JL has received payments from non-profits for consulting on projects that investigated indication based prescribing and which drugs should be distributed free of charge by general practitioners. He received payment from a for-profit for being on a panel that discussed expanding drug insurance in Canada.

This proposal has been endorsed by Physicians for a National Health Program and Canadian Doctors for Medicare; authors and working group members are active in both organizations. Physicians for a National Health Program is not-for-profit organization that advocates for a single-payer healthcare system for the United States. Canadian Doctors for Medicare is a not-for-profit organization that advocates on behalf of Canada’s public single-payer system.

Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

1. Alpern JD, Stauffer WM, Kesselheim AS. High-cost generic drugs—implications for patients and policymakers. N Engl J Med 2014;371:1859-62. 10.1056/NEJMp1408376 25390739

2. Mailankody S, Prasad V. Five years of cancer drug approvals: innovation, efficacy, and costs. JAMA Oncol 2015;1:539-40. 10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.0373 26181265

3. Kesselheim AS, Avorn J, Sarpatwari A. The high cost of prescription drugs in the United States: origins and prospects for reform. JAMA 2016;316:858-71. 10.1001/jama.2016.11237 27552619

4. O’Sullivan BP, Orenstein DM, Milla CE. Pricing for orphan drugs: will the market bear what society cannot? JAMA 2013;310:1343-4. 10.1001/jama.2013.278129 24084916

5. Kim C, Prasad V. Cancer drugs approved on the basis of a surrogate end point and subsequent overall survival: an analysis of 5 years of US Food and Drug Administration approvals. JAMA Intern Med 2015;175:1992-4. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.5868 26502403

6. Kumar H, Fojo T, Mailankody S. An appraisal of clinically meaningful outcomes guidelines for oncology clinical trials. JAMA Oncol 2016;2:1238-40. 10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.0931 27281466

7. Lexchin J. How safe and innovative are first-in-class drugs approved by Health Canada: a cohort study. Healthc Policy 2016;12:65-75.28032825

8. Lexchin J. Those who have the gold make the evidence: how the pharmaceutical industry biases the outcomes of clinical trials of medications. Sci Eng Ethics 2012;18:247-61. 10.1007/s11948-011-9265-3 21327723

9. Topol EJ. Failing the public health—rofecoxib, Merck, and the FDA. N Engl J Med 2004;351:1707-9. 10.1056/NEJMp048286 15470193

10. Outterson K, Gopinathan U, Clift C, So AD, Morel CM, Røttingen JA. Delinking investment in antibiotic research and development from sales revenues: the challenges of transforming a promising idea into reality. PLoS Med 2016;13:e1002043. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002043 27299990

11. Conti RM, Rosenthal MB. Pharmaceutical policy reform—balancing affordability with incentives for innovation. N Engl J Med 2016;374:703-6. 10.1056/NEJMp1515068 26933845

12. Finkelstein SN, Temin P. Reasonable Rx: solving the drug price crisis. FT Press/Pearson Education, 2008.

13. Making Medicines Affordable. A national imperative. National Academies Press, 2017.

14. Morgan SG, Gagnon M-A, Mintzes B, Lexchin J. A better prescription: advice for a national strategy on pharmaceutical policy in Canada. Healthc Policy 2016;12:18-36.27585023

15. Morgan SG, Lee A. Cost-related non-adherence to prescribed medicines among older adults: a cross-sectional analysis of a survey in 11 developed countries. BMJ Open 2017;7:e014287. 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014287 28143838

16. Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. General comment No 14. 2000. http://www.un.org…

17. Spurling GK, Mansfield PR, Montgomery BD, etal . Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of physicians’ prescribing: a systematic review. PLoS Med 2010;7:e1000352. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000352 20976098

18. Collins SR, Rasmussen PW, Doty MM, Beutel S. The rise in health care coverage and affordability since health reform took effect: findings from the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, 2014. Issue Brief (Commonw Fund) 2015;2:1-16.25807592

19 Himmelstein DU, Thorne D, Warren E, Woolhandler S. Medical bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: results of a national study. Am J Med 2009;122:741-6. 10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.04.012 19501347

20. Himmelstein DU, Woolhandler S, Sarra J, Guyatt G. Health issues and health care expenses in Canadian bankruptcies and insolvencies. Int J Health Serv 2014;44:7-23. 10.2190/HS.44.1.b 24684082

21. Congressional Budget Office. Federal subsidies for health insurance coverage for people under age 65: 2017 to 2027. 2017. https://www.cbo.gov…

22. Tamblyn R, Laprise R, Hanley JA, etal. Adverse events associated with prescription drug cost-sharing among poor and elderly persons. JAMA 2001;285:421-9. 10.1001/jama.285.4.421 11242426

23. Lohr KN, Brook RH, Kamberg CJ, etal. Use of medical care in the Rand Health Insurance Experiment. Diagnosis- and service-specific analyses in a randomized controlled trial. Med Care 1986;24(Suppl):S1-87.3093785

24. Goldman DP, Joyce GF, Zheng Y. Prescription drug cost sharing: associations with medication and medical utilization and spending and health. JAMA 2007;298:61-9. 10.1001/jama.298.1.61 17609491

25. Sinnott SJ, Buckley C, O’Riordan D, Bradley C, Whelton H. The effect of copayments for prescriptions on adherence to prescription medicines in publicly insured populations; a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2013;8:e64914. 10.1371/journal.pone.0064914 23724105

26 Choudhry NK, Bykov K, Shrank WH, etal. Eliminating medication copayments reduces disparities in cardiovascular care. Health Aff (Millwood) 2014;33:863-70. 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0654 24799585

27. OECD. Health at a glance 2015: OECD indicators. 2015. 10.1787/health_glance-2015-en

28. Free prescriptions ‘saving Welsh NHS money for 10 years’. BBC News 2017 Apr 1. http://www.bbc.com…

29. Kesselheim AS, Huybrechts KF, Choudhry NK, etal. Prescription drug insurance coverage and patient health outcomes: a systematic review. Am J Public Health 2015;105:e17-30. 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302240 25521879

30. Cochrane AL. Effectiveness and efficiency: random reflections on health services. Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, 1972.

31. Langret R, Migliozzi B, Gokhale K. The US pays a lot more for top drugs than other countries. Bloomberg 2015. https://www.bloomberg.com…

32. McKinnell H. A call to action: taking back healthcare for future generations. McGraw Hill, 2005.

33. Prasad V, Mailankody S. Research and development spending to bring a single cancer drug to market and revenues after approval. JAMA Intern Med 2017;177:1569-75. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.3601 28892524

34. Parker-Pope T, Peachman RR. EpiPen price rise sparks concern for allergy sufferers. New York Times 2016 Aug 22. https://well.blogs.nytimes.com…

35. Pollack A. Drug goes from $13.50 a tablet to $750, overnight. New York Times 2015 Sep 20. https://www.nytimes.com…

36. Experts in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. The price of drugs for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a reflection of the unsustainable prices of cancer drugs: from the perspective of a large group of CML experts. Blood 2013;121:4439-42. 10.1182/blood-2013-03-490003 23620577

37. Ranked within industries. Fortune 2017;500:f33-40.

38. Roughead EE, Lopert R, Sansom LN. Prices for innovative pharmaceutical products that provide health gain: a comparison between Australia and the United States. Value Health 2007;10:514-20. 10.1111/j.1524-4733.2007.00206.x 17970935

39. Gagnon M-A, Wolfe S. Mirror, mirror on the wall. 2015. https://www.citizen.org…

40. Kanavos P, Ferrario A, Vandoros S, Anderson GF. Higher US branded drug prices and spending compared to other countries may stem partly from quick uptake of new drugs. Health Aff (Millwood) 2013;32:753-61. 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.0920 23569056

41. Congressional Budget Office. Prices for brand-name drugs under selected federal programs. 2005. https://www.cbo.gov…

42. Two “not cost effective” drugs face being dropped from cancer drugs fund. Pharmaceutical Journal 2016. http://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com…

43. Love J. Talking drug prices. Pt 4. Drug pricing is out of control, what should be done? Plos One Blog 19 Oct 2015. http://blogs.plos.org…

44. Reichman JH. Comment: compulsory licensing of patented pharmaceutical inventions: evaluating the options. J Law Med Ethics 2009;37:247-63. 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2009.00369.x 19493070

45. Kapczynski A, Kesselheim AS. Government patent use: a legal approach to reducing drug spending. Health Aff (Millwood) 2016;35:791-7. 10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1120 27140984

46. Mundy A. Just the medicine. Wash Mon 2016. Nov/Dec. https://washingtonmonthly.com…

47. Carroll J, Winslow R. Bayer to slash by nearly half price US pays for anthrax drug. Wall Street Journal 2001 Oct 25. https://www.wsj.com…

48. Foss K. Patent war looming over drug for anthrax decision asking manufacturer to infringe necessary for Canadians’ safety, Rock says. Glove and Mail 2001 Oct 19. https://www.theglobeandmail.com…

49. Moïse P, Docteur E. Pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies in sweden. OECD Health Working Papers. 2007. http://search.oecd.org…

50. Light DW, Lexchin J, Darrow JJ. Institutional corruption of pharmaceuticals and the myth of safe and effective drugs. J Law Med Ethics 2013;41:590-600. 10.1111/jlme.12068 24088149

51. Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Annual report 2016. PMPRB, 2017.

52. Lanthier M, Miller KL, Nardinelli C, Woodcock J. An improved approach to measuring drug innovation finds steady rates of first-in-class pharmaceuticals, 1987-2011. Health Aff (Millwood) 2013;32:1433-9. 10.1377/hlthaff.2012.0541 23918488

53. Rupp T, Zuckerman D. Quality of life, overall survival, and costs of cancer drugs approved based on surrogate endpoints. JAMA Intern Med 2017;177:276-7. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.7761. 27898978

54. Ward DJ, Slade A, Genus T, Martino OI, Stevens AJ. How innovative are new drugs launched in the UK? A retrospective study of new drugs listed in the British National Formulary (BNF) 2001-2012. BMJ Open 2014;4:e006235. 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006235 25344485

55. Davis C, Naci H, Gurpinar E, Poplavska E, Pinto A, Aggarwal A. Availability of evidence of benefits on overall survival and quality of life of cancer drugs approved by European Medicines Agency: retrospective cohort study of drug approvals 2009-13. BMJ 2017;359:j4530. 10.1136/bmj.j4530 28978555

56. Downing NS, Ross JS, Jackevicius CA, Krumholz HM. Avoidance of generic competition by Abbott Laboratories’ fenofibrate franchise. Arch Intern Med 2012;172:724-30. 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.187 22493409

57. Vokinger KN, Kesselheim AS, Avorn J, Sarpatwari A. Strategies that delay market entry of generic drugs. JAMA Intern Med 2017;177:1665-9. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.4650 28975217

58. Markel H. Patents, profits, and the American people—the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. N Engl J Med 2013;369:794-6. 10.1056/NEJMp1306553 23984726

59. Correa C. Trends in drug patenting—case studies. Ediciones Corregidor 2001. http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs…

60. Sarpatwari A, Avorn J, Kesselheim AS. Factors influencing prescription drug costs in the United States—reply. JAMA 2016;316:2431-2. 10.1001/jama.2016.17299 27959994

61. Treasure CL, Kesselheim AS. How patent troll legislation can increase timely access to generic drugs. JAMA Intern Med 2016;176:729-30. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1867 27183456

62. Attaran A. A modest but meaningful decision for Indian drug patents. Lancet 2014;384:477-9. 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60845-4 24976117

63. Love J. What’s wrong with current system of funding R&D, and what are ideas for reforms? Knowledge Ecology International 2015. http://keionline.org/node/2350

64. Baker D, Chatani N. Promoting good ideas on drugs: are patents the best way? the relative efficiency of patent and public support for bio-medical research. 2002. http://cepr.net…

65. Bikdeli B, Punnanithinont N, Akram Y, etal. Two decades of cardiovascular trials with primary surrogate endpoints: 1990-2011. J Am Heart Assoc 2017;6:e005285. 10.1161/JAHA.116.005285 28325713

66. Turner EH, Matthews AM, Linardatos E, Tell RA, Rosenthal R. Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. N Engl J Med 2008;358:252-60. 10.1056/NEJMsa065779 18199864

67. Glaxo agrees to pay $3 billion in fraud settlement. New York Times 2012 Jul 2. https://www.nytimes.com…

68. Hwang TJ, Carpenter D, Lauffenburger JC, Wang B, Franklin JM, Kesselheim AS. Failure of investigational drugs in late-stage clinical development and publication of trial results. JAMA Intern Med 2016;176:1826-33. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.6008 27723879

69. Jayadev A, Stiglitz J. Two ideas to increase innovation and reduce pharmaceutical costs and prices. Health Aff (Millwood) 2009;28:w165-8. 10.1377/hlthaff.28.1.w165 19088104

70. Mintzes B, Lexchin J, Quintano AS. Clinical trial transparency: many gains but access to evidence for new medicines remains imperfect. Br Med Bull 2015;116:43-53. 10.1093/bmb/ldv042. 26493102

71. Svensson S, Menkes DB, Lexchin J. Surrogate outcomes in clinical trials: a cautionary tale. JAMA Intern Med 2013;173:611-2. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.3037 23529157

72. BakerD. The benefits and savings from publicly funded clinical trials of prescription drugs. Int J Health Serv 2008;38:731-50. 10.2190/HS.38.4.i 19069290

73. Carpenter D, Zucker EJ, Avorn J. Drug-review deadlines and safety problems. N Engl J Med 2008;358:1354-61. 10.1056/NEJMsa0706341 18367738

74. Frank C, Himmelstein DU, Woolhandler S, etal. Era of faster FDA drug approval has also seen increased black-box warnings and market withdrawals. Health Aff (Millwood) 2014;33:1453-9. 10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0122 25092848

75. Olson MK. The risk we bear: the effects of review speed and industry user fees on new drug safety. J Health Econ 2008;27:175-200. 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2007.10.007 18207263

76. Lexchin J. Post-market safety warnings for drugs approved in Canada under the Notice of Compliance with conditions policy. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2015;79:847-59. 10.1111/bcp.12552 25393960

77. Moore TJ, Furberg CD. Development times, clinical testing, postmarket follow-up, and safety risks for the new drugs approved by the US Food And Drug Administration: the class of 2008. JAMA Intern Med 2014;174:90-5. 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.11813 24166236

78. Fain K, Daubresse M, Alexander GC. The Food And Drug Administration Amendments Act and postmarketing commitments. JAMA 2013;310:202-4. 10.1001/jama.2013.7900 23839755

79. Law MR. The characteristics and fulfillment of conditional prescription drug approvals in Canada. Health Policy 2014;116:154-61. 10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.03.003 24703857

80. Kesselheim AS, Wang B, Franklin JM, Darrow JJ. Trends in utilization of FDA expedited drug development and approval programs, 1987-2014: cohort study. BMJ 2015;351:h4633. 10.1136/bmj.h4633 26400751

81. Lexchin J. Health Canada’s use of its priority review process for new drugs: a cohort study. BMJ Open 2015;5:e006816. 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006816 25967989

82. Avorn J, Kesselheim AS. The 21st Century Cures Act—will it take us back in time? N Engl J Med 2015;372:2473-5. 10.1056/NEJMp1506964 26039522

83. Kesselheim AS, Avorn J. New “21st century cures” legislation: Speed and ease vs science. JAMA 2017;317:581-2. 10.1001/jama.2016.20640 28056124

84. Downing NS, Shah ND, Aminawung JA, etal. Postmarket safety events among novel therapeutics approved by the us food and drug administration between 2001 and 2010. JAMA 2017;317:1854-63. 10.1001/jama.2017.5150 28492899

85. Lexchin J. New drugs and safety: what happened to new active substances approved in Canada between 1995 and 2010? Arch Intern Med 2012;172:1680-1. 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.4444 23044937

86. Mostaghim SR, Gagne JJ, Kesselheim AS. Safety related label changes for new drugs after approval in the US through expedited regulatory pathways: retrospective cohort study. BMJ 2017;358:j3837. 10.1136/bmj.j3837 28882831

87. Pham-Kanter G. Revisiting financial conflicts of interest in FDA advisory committees. Milbank Q 2014;92:446-70. 10.1111/1468-0009.12073 25199895

88. Moore TJ, Furberg CD. Electronic health data for postmarket surveillance: a vision not realized. Drug Saf 2015;38:601-10. 10.1007/s40264-015-0305-9 26025018

89. Herder M, Gibson E, Graham J, Lexchin J, Mintzes B. Regulating prescription drugs for patient safety: does Bill C-17 go far enough? CMAJ 2014;186:E287-92. 10.1503/cmaj.131850 24616135

90. Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, etal. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet 2010;376:1923-58. 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61854-5 21112623

91. Kornfield R, Donohue J, Berndt ER, Alexander GC. Promotion of prescription drugs to consumers and providers, 2001-2010. PLoS One 2013;8:e55504. 10.1371/journal.pone.0055504 23469165

92. Gagnon M-A, Lexchin J. The cost of pushing pills: a new estimate of pharmaceutical promotion expenditures in the United States. PLoS Med 2008;5:e1. 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050001 18177202

93. Korenstein D, Keyhani S, Mendelson A, Ross JS. Adherence of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals to FDA guidelines and content for safe prescribing. PLoS One 2011;6:e23336. 10.1371/journal.pone.0023336 21858076

94. Othman N, Vitry A, Roughead EE. Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review. PLoS One 2009;4:e6350. 10.1371/journal.pone.0006350 19623259

95. Spurling GK, Mansfield PR, Montgomery BD, etal. Information from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of physicians’ prescribing: a systematic review. PLoS Med 2010;7:e1000352. 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000352 20976098

96. Greene JA, Herzberg D. Hidden in plain sight: marketing prescription drugs to consumers in the twentieth century. Am J Public Health 2010;100:793-803. 10.2105/AJPH.2009.181255 20299640

97. Lexchin J, Mintzes B. A compromise too far: a review of Canadian cases of direct-to-consumer advertising regulation. Int J Risk Saf Med 2014;26:213-25. 10.3233/jrs-140635. 25420763

98. Kiester M. DDMAC submissions. Drug Information Association, 2011. http://www.fda.gov…

99. Lexchin J. Models for financing the regulation of pharmaceutical promotion. Global Health 2012;8:24. 10.1186/1744-8603-8-24 22784944

100. Evans D. Big pharma’s crime spree. Bloomberg Markets, 2009: 72-86.

101. Wilson D. Side effects may include lawsuits. New York Times 2010 Oct 2. http://www.nytimes.com…

102. Shuchman M. Drug risks and free speech—can Congress ban consumer drug ads? N Engl J Med 2007;356:2236-9. 10.1056/NEJMp078080 17476002

103. Avorn J. Academic detailing: “marketing” the best evidence to clinicians. JAMA 2017;317:361-2. 10.1001/jama.2016.16036 28118458

104 Avorn J, Soumerai SB. Improving drug-therapy decisions through educational outreach. A randomized controlled trial of academically based “detailing.” N Engl J Med 1983;308:1457-63. 10.1056/NEJM198306163082406 6406886

105. Hager M, Russell S, Fletcher S, eds. Conference conclusions and recommendations. Continuing education in the health professions: improving healthcare through lifelong learning; 2007. http://macyfoundation.org…

106. Cosgrove L, Bursztajn HJ, Erlich DR, Wheeler EE, Shaughnessy AF. Conflicts of interest and the quality of recommendations in clinical guidelines. J Eval Clin Pract 2013;19:674-81. 10.1111/jep.12016 23731207

107. Institute of Medicine. Clinical practice guidelines we can trust. National Academies Press, 2011.

108. Morgan SG, Law M, Daw JR, Abraham L, Martin D. Estimated cost of universal public coverage of prescription drugs in Canada. CMAJ 2015;187:491-7. 10.1503/cmaj.141564 25780047

109. Kirzinger A, DiJulio B, Sugarman E, etal. Kaiser Health tracking poll—late April 2017: the future of the ACA and health care & the budget. 2017. https://www.kff.org…

110. Angus Reid Institute. Prescription drug access and affordability an issue for nearly a quarter of all Canadian households. 2017. http://angusreid.org…

Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Author credentials: 1. Department of Medicine, Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; 2. School of Health Policy and Management, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Privacy Policy

Last updated: January 07, 2021

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

  • Account means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.
  • Business, for the purpose of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), refers to the Company as the legal entity that collects Consumers’ personal information and determines the purposes and means of the processing of Consumers’ personal information, or on behalf of which such information is collected and that alone, or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of consumers’ personal information, that does business in the State of California.
  • Company (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to Physicians for a National Health Program, 29 E. Madison, Ste. 1412, Chicago, IL 60602.For the purpose of the GDPR, the Company is the Data Controller.
  • Consumer, for the purpose of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), means a natural person who is a California resident. A resident, as defined in the law, includes (1) every individual who is in the USA for other than a temporary or transitory purpose, and (2) every individual who is domiciled in the USA who is outside the USA for a temporary or transitory purpose.
  • Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.
  • Country refers to: Illinois, United States
  • Data Controller, for the purposes of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), refers to the Company as the legal person which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of Personal Data.
  • Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.
  • Do Not Track (DNT) is a concept that has been promoted by US regulatory authorities, in particular the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), for the Internet industry to develop and implement a mechanism for allowing internet users to control the tracking of their online activities across websites.
  • Facebook Fan Page is a public profile named Physicians for a National Health Program specifically created by the Company on the Facebook social network, accessible from https://www.facebook.com/doctorsforsinglepayer
  • Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.For the purposes for GDPR, Personal Data means any information relating to You such as a name, an identification number, location data, online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. For the purposes of the CCPA, Personal Data means any information that identifies, relates to, describes or is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with You.
  • Sale, for the purpose of the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act), means selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a Consumer’s personal information to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.
  • Service refers to the Website.
  • Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used. For the purpose of the GDPR, Service Providers are considered Data Processors.
  • Third-party Social Media Service refers to any website or any social network website through which a User can log in or create an account to use the Service.
  • Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).
  • Website refers to Physicians for a National Health Program, accessible from https://pnhp.org
  • You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.Under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), You can be referred to as the Data Subject or as the User as you are the individual using the Service.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Email address
  • First name and last name
  • Phone number
  • Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City
  • Usage Data

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:

  • Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, You may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
  • Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Service may use local stored objects (or Flash Cookies) to collect and store information about Your preferences or Your activity on our Service. Flash Cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as those used for Browser Cookies. For more information on how You can delete Flash Cookies, please read “Where can I change the settings for disabling, or deleting local shared objects?” available at https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/disable-local-shared-objects-flash.html#main_Where_can_I_change_the_settings_for_disabling__or_deleting_local_shared_objects_
  • Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).

Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser. Learn more about cookies: Cookies: What Do They Do?.

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:

  • Necessary / Essential Cookies: Type: Session Cookies Administered by: Us Purpose: These Cookies are essential to provide You with services available through the Website and to enable You to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these Cookies, the services that You have asked for cannot be provided, and We only use these Cookies to provide You with those services.
  • Cookies Policy / Notice Acceptance Cookies: Type: Persistent Cookies Administered by: Us Purpose: These Cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the Website.
  • Functionality Cookies: Type: Persistent Cookies Administered by: Us Purpose: These Cookies allow us to remember choices You make when You use the Website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these Cookies is to provide You with a more personal experience and to avoid You having to re-enter your preferences every time You use the Website.
  • Tracking and Performance Cookies: Type: Persistent Cookies Administered by: Third-Parties Purpose: These Cookies are used to track information about traffic to the Website and how users use the Website. The information gathered via these Cookies may directly or indirectly identify you as an individual visitor. This is because the information collected is typically linked to a pseudonymous identifier associated with the device you use to access the Website. We may also use these Cookies to test new pages, features or new functionality of the Website to see how our users react to them.

For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy or the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.
  • To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.
  • For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.
  • To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.
  • To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.
  • To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.
  • For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.
  • For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

We may share Your personal information in the following situations:

  • With Service Providers: We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, for payment processing, to contact You.
  • For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
  • With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
  • With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
  • With other users: when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside. If You interact with other users or register through a Third-Party Social Media Service, Your contacts on the Third-Party Social Media Service may see Your name, profile, pictures and description of Your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of Your activity, communicate with You and view Your profile.
  • With Your consent: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • Comply with a legal obligation
  • Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
  • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
  • Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Detailed Information on the Processing of Your Personal Data

The Service Providers We use may have access to Your Personal Data. These third-party vendors collect, store, use, process and transfer information about Your activity on Our Service in accordance with their Privacy Policies.

Analytics

We may use third-party Service providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service.

  • Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Email Marketing

We may use Your Personal Data to contact You with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to You. You may opt-out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from Us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email We send or by contacting Us.

We may use Email Marketing Service Providers to manage and send emails to You.

  • Salsa Labs: Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.salsalabs.com/privacy-policy

Payments

We may provide paid products and/or services within the Service. In that case, we may use third-party services for payment processing (e.g. payment processors).

We will not store or collect Your payment card details. That information is provided directly to Our third-party payment processors whose use of Your personal information is governed by their Privacy Policy. These payment processors adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of payment information.

  • PayPal: Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
  • Shopify: Their Privacy Policy can be viewed at https://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy

GDPR Privacy

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data under GDPR

We may process Personal Data under the following conditions:

  • Consent: You have given Your consent for processing Personal Data for one or more specific purposes.
  • Performance of a contract: Provision of Personal Data is necessary for the performance of an agreement with You and/or for any pre-contractual obligations thereof.
  • Legal obligations: Processing Personal Data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the Company is subject.
  • Vital interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary in order to protect Your vital interests or of another natural person.
  • Public interests: Processing Personal Data is related to a task that is carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the Company.
  • Legitimate interests: Processing Personal Data is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Company.

In any case, the Company will gladly help to clarify the specific legal basis that applies to the processing, and in particular whether the provision of Personal Data is a statutory or contractual requirement, or a requirement necessary to enter into a contract.

Your Rights under the GDPR

The Company undertakes to respect the confidentiality of Your Personal Data and to guarantee You can exercise Your rights.

You have the right under this Privacy Policy, and by law if You are within the EU, to:

  • Request access to Your Personal Data. The right to access, update or delete the information We have on You. Whenever made possible, you can access, update or request deletion of Your Personal Data directly within Your account settings section. If you are unable to perform these actions yourself, please contact Us to assist You. This also enables You to receive a copy of the Personal Data We hold about You.
  • Request correction of the Personal Data that We hold about You. You have the right to to have any incomplete or inaccurate information We hold about You corrected.
  • Object to processing of Your Personal Data. This right exists where We are relying on a legitimate interest as the legal basis for Our processing and there is something about Your particular situation, which makes You want to object to our processing of Your Personal Data on this ground. You also have the right to object where We are processing Your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes.
  • Request erasure of Your Personal Data. You have the right to ask Us to delete or remove Personal Data when there is no good reason for Us to continue processing it.
  • Request the transfer of Your Personal Data. We will provide to You, or to a third-party You have chosen, Your Personal Data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note that this right only applies to automated information which You initially provided consent for Us to use or where We used the information to perform a contract with You.
  • Withdraw Your consent. You have the right to withdraw Your consent on using your Personal Data. If You withdraw Your consent, We may not be able to provide You with access to certain specific functionalities of the Service.

Exercising of Your GDPR Data Protection Rights

You may exercise Your rights of access, rectification, cancellation and opposition by contacting Us. Please note that we may ask You to verify Your identity before responding to such requests. If You make a request, We will try our best to respond to You as soon as possible.

You have the right to complain to a Data Protection Authority about Our collection and use of Your Personal Data. For more information, if You are in the European Economic Area (EEA), please contact Your local data protection authority in the EEA.

Facebook Fan Page

Data Controller for the Facebook Fan Page

The Company is the Data Controller of Your Personal Data collected while using the Service. As operator of the Facebook Fan Page https://www.facebook.com/doctorsforsinglepayer, the Company and the operator of the social network Facebook are Joint Controllers.

The Company has entered into agreements with Facebook that define the terms for use of the Facebook Fan Page, among other things. These terms are mostly based on the Facebook Terms of Service: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Visit the Facebook Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policy.php for more information about how Facebook manages Personal data or contact Facebook online, or by mail: Facebook, Inc. ATTN, Privacy Operations, 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States.

Facebook Insights

We use the Facebook Insights function in connection with the operation of the Facebook Fan Page and on the basis of the GDPR, in order to obtain anonymized statistical data about Our users.

For this purpose, Facebook places a Cookie on the device of the user visiting Our Facebook Fan Page. Each Cookie contains a unique identifier code and remains active for a period of two years, except when it is deleted before the end of this period.

Facebook receives, records and processes the information stored in the Cookie, especially when the user visits the Facebook services, services that are provided by other members of the Facebook Fan Page and services by other companies that use Facebook services.

For more information on the privacy practices of Facebook, please visit Facebook Privacy Policy here: https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy

CCPA Privacy

This privacy notice section for California residents supplements the information contained in Our Privacy Policy and it applies solely to all visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California.

Categories of Personal Information Collected

We collect information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular Consumer or Device. The following is a list of categories of personal information which we may collect or may have been collected from California residents within the last twelve (12) months.

Please note that the categories and examples provided in the list below are those defined in the CCPA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact collected by Us, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been collected. For example, certain categories of personal information would only be collected if You provided such personal information directly to Us.

  • Category A: Identifiers. Examples: A real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.Collected: Yes.
  • Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)). Examples: A name, signature, Social Security number, physical characteristics or description, address, telephone number, passport number, driver’s license or state identification card number, insurance policy number, education, employment, employment history, bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information, medical information, or health insurance information. Some personal information included in this category may overlap with other categories.Collected: Yes.
  • Category C: Protected classification characteristics under California or federal law. Examples: Age (40 years or older), race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information).Collected: No.
  • Category D: Commercial information. Examples: Records and history of products or services purchased or considered.Collected: Yes.
  • Category E: Biometric information. Examples: Genetic, physiological, behavioral, and biological characteristics, or activity patterns used to extract a template or other identifier or identifying information, such as, fingerprints, faceprints, and voiceprints, iris or retina scans, keystroke, gait, or other physical patterns, and sleep, health, or exercise data.Collected: No.
  • Category F: Internet or other similar network activity. Examples: Interaction with our Service or advertisement.Collected: Yes.
  • Category G: Geolocation data. Examples: Approximate physical location.Collected: No.
  • Category H: Sensory data. Examples: Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information.Collected: No.
  • Category I: Professional or employment-related information. Examples: Current or past job history or performance evaluations.Collected: No.
  • Category J: Non-public education information (per the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99)). Examples: Education records directly related to a student maintained by an educational institution or party acting on its behalf, such as grades, transcripts, class lists, student schedules, student identification codes, student financial information, or student disciplinary records.Collected: No.
  • Category K: Inferences drawn from other personal information. Examples: Profile reflecting a person’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.Collected: No.

Under CCPA, personal information does not include:

  • Publicly available information from government records
  • Deidentified or aggregated consumer information
  • Information excluded from the CCPA’s scope, such as:
    • Health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA) or clinical trial data
    • Personal Information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) or California Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA), and the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994

Sources of Personal Information

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

  • Directly from You. For example, from the forms You complete on our Service, preferences You express or provide through our Service, or from Your purchases on our Service.
  • Indirectly from You. For example, from observing Your activity on our Service.
  • Automatically from You. For example, through cookies We or our Service Providers set on Your Device as You navigate through our Service.
  • From Service Providers. For example, third-party vendors to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, third-party vendors for payment processing, or other third-party vendors that We use to provide the Service to You.

Use of Personal Information for Business Purposes or Commercial Purposes

We may use or disclose personal information We collect for “business purposes” or “commercial purposes” (as defined under the CCPA), which may include the following examples:

  • To operate our Service and provide You with our Service.
  • To provide You with support and to respond to Your inquiries, including to investigate and address Your concerns and monitor and improve our Service.
  • To fulfill or meet the reason You provided the information. For example, if You share Your contact information to ask a question about our Service, We will use that personal information to respond to Your inquiry. If You provide Your personal information to purchase a product or service, We will use that information to process Your payment and facilitate delivery.
  • To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
  • As described to You when collecting Your personal information or as otherwise set forth in the CCPA.
  • For internal administrative and auditing purposes.
  • To detect security incidents and protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, including, when necessary, to prosecute those responsible for such activities.

Please note that the examples provided above are illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive. For more details on how we use this information, please refer to the “Use of Your Personal Data” section.

If We decide to collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information We collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes We will update this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of Personal Information for Business Purposes or Commercial Purposes

We may use or disclose and may have used or disclosed in the last twelve (12) months the following categories of personal information for business or commercial purposes:

  • Category A: Identifiers
  • Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))
  • Category D: Commercial information
  • Category F: Internet or other similar network activity

Please note that the categories listed above are those defined in the CCPA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact disclosed, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been disclosed.

When We disclose personal information for a business purpose or a commercial purpose, We enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that personal information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.

Sale of Personal Information

As defined in the CCPA, “sell” and “sale” mean selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to a third party for valuable consideration. This means that We may have received some kind of benefit in return for sharing personal Information, but not necessarily a monetary benefit.

Please note that the categories listed below are those defined in the CCPA. This does not mean that all examples of that category of personal information were in fact sold, but reflects our good faith belief to the best of our knowledge that some of that information from the applicable category may be and may have been shared for value in return.

We may sell and may have sold in the last twelve (12) months the following categories of personal information:

  • Category A: Identifiers
  • Category B: Personal information categories listed in the California Customer Records statute (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e))
  • Category D: Commercial information
  • Category F: Internet or other similar network activity

Share of Personal Information

We may share Your personal information identified in the above categories with the following categories of third parties:

  • Service Providers
  • Payment processors
  • Our affiliates
  • Our business partners
  • Third party vendors to whom You or Your agents authorize Us to disclose Your personal information in connection with products or services We provide to You

Sale of Personal Information of Minors Under 16 Years of Age

We do not sell the personal information of Consumers We actually know are less than 16 years of age, unless We receive affirmative authorization (the “right to opt-in”) from either the Consumer who is between 13 and 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a Consumer less than 13 years of age. Consumers who opt-in to the sale of personal information may opt-out of future sales at any time. To exercise the right to opt-out, You (or Your authorized representative) may submit a request to Us by contacting Us.

If You have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 (or 16) has provided Us with personal information, please contact Us with sufficient detail to enable Us to delete that information.

Your Rights under the CCPA

The CCPA provides California residents with specific rights regarding their personal information. If You are a resident of California, You have the following rights:

  • The right to notice. You have the right to be notified which categories of Personal Data are being collected and the purposes for which the Personal Data is being used.
  • The right to request. Under CCPA, You have the right to request that We disclose information to You about Our collection, use, sale, disclosure for business purposes and share of personal information. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will disclose to You:
    • The categories of personal information We collected about You
    • The categories of sources for the personal information We collected about You
    • Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling that personal information
    • The categories of third parties with whom We share that personal information
    • The specific pieces of personal information We collected about You
    • If we sold Your personal information or disclosed Your personal information for a business purpose, We will disclose to You:
      • The categories of personal information categories sold
      • The categories of personal information categories disclosed
  • The right to say no to the sale of Personal Data (opt-out). You have the right to direct Us to not sell Your personal information. To submit an opt-out request please contact Us.
  • The right to delete Personal Data. You have the right to request the deletion of Your Personal Data, subject to certain exceptions. Once We receive and confirm Your request, We will delete (and direct Our Service Providers to delete) Your personal information from our records, unless an exception applies. We may deny Your deletion request if retaining the information is necessary for Us or Our Service Providers to:
    • Complete the transaction for which We collected the personal information, provide a good or service that You requested, take actions reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with You, or otherwise perform our contract with You.
    • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for such activities.
    • Debug products to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality.
    • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise their free speech rights, or exercise another right provided for by law.
    • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (Cal. Penal Code § 1546 et. seq.).
    • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the information’s deletion may likely render impossible or seriously impair the research’s achievement, if You previously provided informed consent.
    • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with consumer expectations based on Your relationship with Us.
    • Comply with a legal obligation.
    • Make other internal and lawful uses of that information that are compatible with the context in which You provided it.
  • The right not to be discriminated against. You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of Your consumer’s rights, including by:
    • Denying goods or services to You
    • Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties
    • Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to You
    • Suggesting that You will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services

Exercising Your CCPA Data Protection Rights

In order to exercise any of Your rights under the CCPA, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us:

  • By email: info@pnhp.org

Only You, or a person registered with the California Secretary of State that You authorize to act on Your behalf, may make a verifiable request related to Your personal information.

Your request to Us must:

  • Provide sufficient information that allows Us to reasonably verify You are the person about whom We collected personal information or an authorized representative
  • Describe Your request with sufficient detail that allows Us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it

We cannot respond to Your request or provide You with the required information if we cannot:

  • Verify Your identity or authority to make the request
  • And confirm that the personal information relates to You

We will disclose and deliver the required information free of charge within 45 days of receiving Your verifiable request. The time period to provide the required information may be extended once by an additional 45 days when reasonable necessary and with prior notice.

Any disclosures We provide will only cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable request’s receipt.

For data portability requests, We will select a format to provide Your personal information that is readily useable and should allow You to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

You have the right to opt-out of the sale of Your personal information. Once We receive and confirm a verifiable consumer request from You, we will stop selling Your personal information. To exercise Your right to opt-out, please contact Us.

The Service Providers we partner with (for example, our analytics or advertising partners) may use technology on the Service that sells personal information as defined by the CCPA law. If you wish to opt out of the use of Your personal information for interest-based advertising purposes and these potential sales as defined under CCPA law, you may do so by following the instructions below.

Please note that any opt out is specific to the browser You use. You may need to opt out on every browser that You use.

Website

You can opt out of receiving ads that are personalized as served by our Service Providers by following our instructions presented on the Service:

  • The NAI’s opt-out platform: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/
  • The EDAA’s opt-out platform: http://www.youronlinechoices.com/
  • The DAA’s opt-out platform: http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN

The opt out will place a cookie on Your computer that is unique to the browser You use to opt out. If you change browsers or delete the cookies saved by your browser, You will need to opt out again.

Mobile Devices

Your mobile device may give You the ability to opt out of the use of information about the apps You use in order to serve You ads that are targeted to Your interests:

  • “Opt out of Interest-Based Ads” or “Opt out of Ads Personalization” on Android devices
  • “Limit Ad Tracking” on iOS devices

You can also stop the collection of location information from Your mobile device by changing the preferences on Your mobile device.

“Do Not Track” Policy as Required by California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)

Our Service does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

However, some third party websites do keep track of Your browsing activities. If You are visiting such websites, You can set Your preferences in Your web browser to inform websites that You do not want to be tracked. You can enable or disable DNT by visiting the preferences or settings page of Your web browser.

Your California Privacy Rights (California’s Shine the Light law)

Under California Civil Code Section 1798 (California’s Shine the Light law), California residents with an established business relationship with us can request information once a year about sharing their Personal Data with third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes.

If you’d like to request more information under the California Shine the Light law, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us using the contact information provided below.

California Privacy Rights for Minor Users (California Business and Professions Code Section 22581)

California Business and Professions Code section 22581 allow California residents under the age of 18 who are registered users of online sites, services or applications to request and obtain removal of content or information they have publicly posted.

To request removal of such data, and if You are a California resident, You can contact Us using the contact information provided below, and include the email address associated with Your account.

Be aware that Your request does not guarantee complete or comprehensive removal of content or information posted online and that the law may not permit or require removal in certain circumstances.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us:

  • By email: info@pnhp.org

PNHP pharma reform proposal in the news

Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system highlights the need for fundamental reform

Healing an Ailing Pharmaceutical System: Prescription for Reform in the United States and Canada was unveiled May 17, 2018 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (To read the full proposal, click here. To read PNHP’s press release on the proposal, click here.) Please see below for a sampling of the substantial media coverage related to the proposal.

***

Video summary

***

Introductory press conference

***

Webinar by Dr. Adam Gaffney

***

News coverage

How to fix the American drug industry
By Ryan Cooper
The Week, May 17, 2018
In America, medication is extremely expensive — and it’s getting worse. Stories of Wall Street bloodsuckers snatching up the patent on some lifesaving drug and jacking up the price by many thousands of percent are routine Continue reading…

Doctors in Canada and US call for ‘fundamental reform’ on prescription drug prices

By Cherise Seucharan
The Toronto Star, May 17, 2018
A new report written by doctors in Canada and the U.S. is calling for major reforms to lower the price of drugs. Published in the British Medical Journal, the report is the result of a two year-study by the U.S./Canadian Pharmaceutical Policy Reform Working Group. Continue reading…

US doctors propose universal health care to fix ‘dysfunctional’ system
By Ellen Daniel
Pharmaceutical Technology News, May 17, 2018
A group of 21 doctors from the US and Canada has published a proposal aimed at ensuring access to ‘safe, innovative, and affordable’ medications. Continue reading…

Rebuking Industry-Friendly Trump Plan, Doctors Offer Blueprint to Confront ‘Greed of Big Pharma’
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams, May 17, 2018
After President Donald Trump conclusively demonstrated last week that he is unwilling to take on the pharmaceutical industry and has no “legitimate plan” to lower drug prices, a group of 21 American and Canadian doctors on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan. Continue reading…

Can an Obscure, 100-Year-Old Patent Law Take On Big Pharma?
By Jacquie Lee
Bloomberg, May 21 2018
Proposed solutions for lowering drug prices typically hinge on sweeping transformations within the drug-supply chain, but what if there’s a more immediate solution? There is, according to Sidney Wolfe, founder of Public Citizen’s health research group. Continue reading…

***

Opinion pieces

Trump’s plan won’t lower prescription drug prices. Ours would.
By Adam Gaffney, M.D.
Washington Post, May 23, 2018
The drug price reforms that President Trump recently proposed are as potent as a placebo, but not as harmless. Trump once blustered that drug firms were “getting away with murder,” but his real-life plan caused pharmaceutical stocks to surge. Continue reading…

No, raising drug prices in Canada will not help the U.S.
By Joel Lexchin
National Post (Toronto), May 18, 2018
Donald Trump’s solution to soaring American drug prices is to have other countries, such as Canada, raise their prices. This is not a new position; American officials have been advocating this approach for at least the past 15 years. Continue reading…

Only a healthy democracy will save us from Big Pharma
By Ed Weisbart, M.D.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 8, 2018
I’m a physician who volunteers in safety-net clinics in St. Louis, constantly seeing patients who can’t afford the medicines I prescribe. Even patients with insurance often can’t afford their co-pays and deductibles, and many treatments simply aren’t covered by their plans. Continue reading…

Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system: economic analysis and supplemental materials

Physicians for a National Health Program and Canadian Doctors for Medicare have joined forces to develop a landmark proposal, “Healing an Ailing Pharmaceutical System: Prescription for Reform in the United States and Canada.” Below, please find an economic analysis and supplemental materials related to the proposal. To read media coverage of the proposal, click here. You may also wish to read and/or distribute our one-page handout, which includes a useful summary of the proposal.

Table 7

One-page handout: Healing an ailing pharmaceutical system

Slideshow: Prescription for Pharmaceutical Reform by Ed Weisbart, M.D.

Table 1: Examples of problems in drug access and pricing in the US and Canada

Table 2: Global evidence of lagging innovation in the drug development process

Table 3: Examples of problems in industry-sponsored clinical trial design

Table 4: Examples of problems in drug approval and regulation

Table 5: Examples of problems in postmarketing surveillance of drugs

Table 6: Examples of problems in drug promotion

Table 7: Estimated effects of proposed reforms on U.S. national pharmaceutical expenditures, 2017 (includes methodology)

Tables 1-7: References

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Page 9
  • Page 10
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 50
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Local Chapters
    • Student chapters
    • Board of Directors
    • National Office Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
    • How do we pay for it?
    • History of Health Reform
    • Conservative Case for Single Payer
    • FAQs
    • Información en Español
  • Take Action
    • The Medicare for All Act of 2025
    • Moral Injury and Distress
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Reports & Proposals
    • Physicians’ Proposal
    • Medicare Advantage Equity Report
    • Medicaid Managed Care Report
    • Medicare Advantage Harms Report
    • Medicare Advantage Overpayments Report
    • Pharma Proposal
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
  • Member Resources
    • 2025 Annual Meeting
    • Member Interest Groups (MIGs)
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Slideshows
    • Newsletter
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Webinars
    • Host a Screening
    • Events Calendar
    • Join or renew your membership

Footer

  • About PNHP
    • Mission Statement
    • Local Chapters
    • Student chapters
    • Board of Directors
    • National Office Staff
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • About Single Payer
    • What is Single Payer?
    • How do we pay for it?
    • History of Health Reform
    • Conservative Case for Single Payer
    • FAQs
    • Información en Español
  • Take Action
    • The Medicare for All Act of 2025
    • Moral Injury and Distress
    • Medical Society Resolutions
    • Recruit Colleagues
    • Schedule a Grand Rounds
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Lobby Visits
  • Latest News
    • Sign up for e-alerts
    • Members in the news
    • Health Justice Monitor
    • Articles of Interest
    • Latest Research
    • For the Press
  • Reports & Proposals
    • Physicians’ Proposal
    • Medicare Advantage Equity Report
    • Medicaid Managed Care Report
    • Medicare Advantage Harms Report
    • Medicare Advantage Overpayments Report
    • Pharma Proposal
    • Kitchen Table Campaign
    • COVID-19 Response
  • Member Resources
    • 2025 Annual Meeting
    • Member Interest Groups (MIGs)
    • Speakers Bureau
    • Slideshows
    • Newsletter
    • Materials & Handouts
    • Webinars
    • Host a Screening
    • Events Calendar
    • Join or renew your membership
©2025 PNHP