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.
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Video summary
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Introductory press conference
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Webinar by Dr. Adam Gaffney
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News coverage
How to fix the American drug industry
By Ryan Cooper
The Week, May 17, 2018
In America, medication is extremely expensive ā 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 āfundamental reformā 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 readingā¦
US doctors propose universal health care to fix ādysfunctionalā 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 āsafe, innovative, and affordableā medications. Continue readingā¦
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 readingā¦
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 thereās a more immediate solution? There is, according to Sidney Wolfe, founder of Public Citizenās health research group. Continue readingā¦
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Opinion pieces
Trumpās plan wonāt 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 āgetting away with murder,ā but his real-life plan caused pharmaceutical stocks to surge. Continue readingā¦
No, raising drug prices in Canada will not help the U.S.
By Joel Lexchin
National Post (Toronto), May 18, 2018
Donald Trumpās 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 readingā¦
Only a healthy democracy will save us from Big Pharma
By Ed Weisbart, M.D.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 8, 2018
Iām a physician who volunteers in safety-net clinics in St. Louis, constantly seeing patients who canāt afford the medicines I prescribe. Even patients with insurance often canāt afford their co-pays and deductibles, and many treatments simply arenāt covered by their plans. Continue readingā¦