In pharmaceutical patent law, the problem of lack of policy direction and inappropriate legal framework is widespread - particularly among jurisdictions with little to no pharmaceutical research or manufacturing. This book aims to inform public policy and influence debate through a comprehensive review of Hong Kong's pharmaceutical patent law. By demonstrating the need for a holistic review of pharmaceutical patent laws and evaluating Hong Kong's system in light of health policy, economic and social factors, Bryan Mercurio recommends changes to the legal framework and constructs a more efficient and effective system for Hong Kong. He thoroughly evaluates the international framework and best practice models to offer a global perspective to each issue before providing local context in the analysis. While the focus of the book is Hong Kong, the analysis on pharmaceutical patent law and policy extends to other jurisdictions facing issues on reforming their national system.

Every year the average number of prescriptions purchased by Americans increases, as do healthcare expenditures, which are projected to reach one-fifth of the U.S. gross domestic product by 2020. In "Drugs for Life," Joseph Dumit considers how our burgeoning consumption of medicine and cost of healthcare not only came to be, but also came to be taken for granted. For several years, Dumit attended pharmaceutical industry conferences; spoke with marketers, researchers, doctors, and patients; and surveyed the industry's literature regarding strategies to expand markets for prescription drugs. He concluded that underlying the continual growth in medications, disease categories, costs, and insecurity is a relatively new perception of ourselves as inherently ill and in need of chronic treatment. This perception is based on clinical trials that we have largely outsourced to pharmaceutical companies. Those companies in turn see clinical trials as investments and measure the value of those investments by the size of the market and profits that they will create. They only ask questions for which the answer is more medicine. "Drugs for Life" challenges our understanding of health, risks, facts, and clinical trials, the very concepts used by pharmaceutical companies to grow markets to the point where almost no one can imagine a life without prescription drugs.

I am encouraged to see healthcare leaders looking beyond the ways they have always done things in the past to implement innovative solutions to curb the industry's skyrocketing costs, poor quality, nursing shortages and employee dissatisfaction; all symptoms of deeper problems inherent in the system itself. Today's forward looking healthcare providers have realized the financial and moral imperatives for improving quality and safety and eliminating waste as strategies for responding to their pressing challenges. Lean Healthcare (adapted from the Toyota Production System) is not just for manufacturing or another short-term fix; it's a way to transform an entire organization into a safe and high-quality, high-performing healthcare delivery system. If implemented properly, it can be the "how to" for managing change and creating continuous improvement.

Coalitions and Compliance examines how international changes can reconfigure domestic politics. Since the late 1980s, developing countries have been subject to intense pressures regarding intellectual property rights. These pressures have been exceptionally controversial in the area of pharmaceuticals. Historically, fearing the economic and social costs of providing private property rights over knowledge, developing countries did not allow drugs to be patented. Now they must do so, an obligation with significant implications for industrial development and public health. This book analyses different forms of compliance with this new imperative in Latin America, comparing the politics of pharmaceutical patenting in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Coalitions and Compliance focuses on two periods of patent politics: initial conflicts over how to introduce drug patents, and then subsequent conflicts over how these new patent systems function. In contrast to explanations of national policy choice based on external pressures, domestic institutions, or Presidents' ideological orientations, this book attributes cross-national and longitudinal variation to the ways that changing social structures constrain or enable political leaders' strategies to construct and sustain supportive coalitions. The analysis begins with assessment of the relative resources and capabilities of the transnational and national pharmaceutical sectors, and these rival actors' efforts to attract allies. Emphasis is placed on two ways that social structures are transformed so as to affect coalition-building possibilities: how exporters fearing the loss of preferential market access may be converted into allies of transnational drug firms, and differential patterns of adjustment among state and societal actors that are inspired by the introduction of new policies. It is within the changing structural conditions produced by these two processes that political leaders build coalitions in support of different forms of compliance.

The biohealthcare executive in upper-middle management confronts leadership challenges unique to their industry: they manage highly specialized knowledge workers and innovators, compete at the speed of technology, work in a highly regulated environment where "free speech" often does not apply due to patient safety and privacy concerns, and increasingly are leading virtual teams who may be located in different parts of the world. Practical leadership for biopharmaceutical executives is a guide that strips away the theory and meets head-on the practical leadership challenges these executives face on a daily basis, and provides these "innovator leaders" with the tools to lead effectively in the face of technological complexity.

The widespread condemnation of drastic price increases on life-saving drugs highlights our growing dependency on and vulnerability to international pharmaceutical conglomerates. However, aren't the interests of the public supposed to supersede the pursuit of private profit? In his new work, Private Profits versus Public Policy, Joel Lexchin addresses this question as he examines how public policy with respect to the pharmaceutical industry has evolved in Canada over the past half century. Although the Canadian government is supposed to regulate the industry to serve the needs of public health, waves of deregulatory reforms and intellectual property rights legislation have shifted the balance of power in favour of these companies' quest for profit. Joel Lexchin offers a series of recommendations to tip the scale back in the public's favour. This enlightening work is the first book that deals exclusively with the pharmaceutical industry in Canada in over thirty years.

While there are a growing number of books based on the Toyota Production System, or lean, focused on healthcare, there are very few that detail the tools that make lean more than just a way of thinking and put the methodology into practice. Based on Hiroyuki Hirano's classic 5 Pillars of the Visual Workplace and modeled after the Shingo Prize-winning Shopfloor Series for Lean Manufacturers, 5S for Healthcare adopts a proven reader-friendly format to impart all the information needed to understand and implement this essential lean methodology. It provides examples and cased studies based on the experiences of the principals involved with the Rona Consulting Group, who were responsible for the groundbreaking implementation of the Toyota Production System at the Virginia Mason Medical Center. Written to readily assist with hands-on implementation efforts, this volume offers innovative features designed to improve understanding and support application. This includes helpful how-to steps and practical examples taken directly from the healthcare industry.