Prescription for the People: An Activist’s Guide to Making Medicine Affordable for All

Description

In Prescription for the People, Fran Quigley diagnoses our inability to get medicines to the people who need them and then prescribes the cure. He delivers a clear and convincing argument for a complete shift in the global and U.S. approach to developing and providing essential medicines--and a primer on how to make that change happen. Globally, 10 million people die each year because they are unable to pay for medicines that would save them. The cost of prescription drugs is bankrupting families and putting a strain on state and federal budgets. Patients' desperate need for affordable medicines clashes with the core business model of the powerful pharmaceutical industry, which maximizes profits whenever possible. It doesn't have to be this way. Patients and activists are aiming to make all essential medicines affordable by reclaiming medicines as a public good and a human right, instead of a profit-making commodity. In this book, Quigley demystifies statistics and terminology, offers solutions to the problems that block universal access to medicines, and provides a road map for activists wanting to make those solutions a reality. Acknowledgments Introduction Part I 1. People Everywhere Are Struggling to Get the Medicines They Need 2. The United States Has a Drug Problem 3. Millions of People Are Dying Needlessly 4. Cancer Patients Face Particularly Deadly Barriers to Medicines 5. The Current Medicine System Neglects Many Major Diseases Part II 6. Corporate Research and Development Investments Are Exaggerated 7. The Current System Wastes Billions on Drug Marketing 8. The Current System Compromises Physician Integrity and Leads to Unethical Corporate Behavior 9. Medicines Are Priced at Whatever the Market Will Bear 10. Pharmaceutical Corporations Reap History-Making Pro ts Part III 11. The For-Profit Medicine Arguments Are Patently False 12. Medicine Patents Are Extended Too Far and Too Wide 13. Patent Protectionism Stunts the Development of New Medicines 14. Governments, Not Private Corporations, Drive Medicine Innovation 15. Taxpayers and Patients Pay Twice for Patented Medicines Part IV 16. Medicines Are a Public Good 17. Medicine Patents Are Arti cial, Recent, and Government-Created 18. The United States and Big Pharma Play the Bully in Extending Patents 19. Pharma-Pushed Trade Agreements Steal the Power of Democratically Elected Governments Part V 20. Current Law Provides Opportunities for Affordable Generic Medicines 21. There Is a Better Way to Develop Medicines 22. Human Rights Law Demands Access to Essential Medicines Conclusion Notes Index