The pharmaceutical industry has long and vehemently insisted that it has the willingness, the dedication, and the ability to police itself to insure that the public will not be unnecessarily harmed or defrauded. As the record shows with painful clarity, however, virtually no industry or professional group has ever adequately policed itself, and the pharmaceutical industry is no exception. Where the most flagrant abuses have been exposed and corrected, major credit must probably be divided among the media that publicized the situation, consumer groups that applied pressure, government officials who took actions that were often unpopular, and individual members of the pharmaceutical industry who had the courage to face up to their social responsibilities.
In this book, the authors turn their attention to what happened in Third World countries when, because of worldwide pressures, the multinational drug companies largely corrected their notorious abuses. On the basis of painstaking research, much of it conducted in a great many Third World countries, the authors conclude that a plethora of small local firms have filled the dishonest sales channels vacated by the multinationals. The authors show in great detail how local drug firms in the Third World have taken advantage of loose regulatory practices and unscrupulous behavior on the part of regional and national health care professionals to promote the sale of dangerous or worthless drugs as remedies for diseases for which they were never intended. Warnings of bad side effects are omitted from promotional literature, drugs are sold that have not had proper trials, and drug firms have often bribed government officials, doctors, and hospital administrators in order to gain favorable treatment in the importation and sale of their products. Among the many topics treated in this book are the controversy over inexpensive generic drugs (including disclosures of fraud and bribery in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration), the actions of consumer groups, and the key role of government in preventing abuses by drug firms. The authors describe a remarkable attempt in Bangladesh, one of the poorest of all the developing countries, to develop a high-quality local drug industry. They also present as case histories reports on three extremely important drug products or groups--the dipyrones (for control of pain and fever), high-dosage estrogen-progesterone hormone products (for use in pregnancy tests), and clioquinol or Enterovioform (for treatment of diarrhea)--all of which were or still are centers of worldwide, heated controversy.

If national health insurance becomes a reality, what options should be considered for the coverage of prescription drugs? The authors-whose Pills, Profits, and Politics has had a dramatic effect on physicians, pharmacists, patients, and the drug industry as well as on federal and state legislators-insist that the major objective must be the best possible health care. But holding down costs to patients and taxpayers must also be a goal. To complicate matters further, the advantage of each likely option-including price controls, the use of formularies, drug utilization review, patient cost-sharing, and the use of low-cost, generic-name products-is offset by a disadvantage, even a danger. If drug prices are slashed too much, the industry will lose many of its incentives to develop better drugs for the future. Particular attention is focused on the so-called drug lag-the lengthy delays in licensing of new drugs, even after they have been used with apparently good results in other countries. Pills and the Public Purse also addresses the seldom-appreciated fact that investing tax dollars in needed drugs may save taxpayers in the long run by minimizing unnecessary physician visits and hospitalization. Pills and the Public Purse challenges Congress and such agencies as the Food and Drug Administration and the Health Care Financing Administration to enact policies that put the interests of the public before those of government, industry, physicians, and pharmacists. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

If national health insurance becomes a reality, what options should be considered for the coverage of prescription drugs? The authors—whose Pills, Profits, and Politics has had a dramatic effect on physicians, pharmacists, patients, and the drug industry as well as on federal and state legislators—insist that the major objective must be the best possible health care. But holding down costs to patients and taxpayers must also be a goal.   To complicate matters further, the advantage of each likely option—including price controls, the use of formularies, drug utilization review, patient cost-sharing, and the use of low-cost, generic-name products—is offset by a disadvantage, even a danger. If drug prices are slashed too much, the industry will lose many of its incentives to develop better drugs for the future.   Particular attention is focused on the so-called drug lag—the lengthy delays in licensing of new drugs, even after they have been used with apparently good results in other countries. Pills and the Public Purse also addresses the seldom-appreciated fact that investing tax dollars in needed drugs may save taxpayers in the long run by minimizing unnecessary physician visits and hospitalization.   Pills and the Public Purse challenges Congress and such agencies as the Food and Drug Administration and the Health Care Financing Administration to enact policies that put the interests of the public before those of government, industry, physicians, and pharmacists.  This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.