Main 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.

Contents:

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I1. People Everywhere Are Struggling to Get the Medicines They Need2. The United States Has a Drug Problem3. Millions of People Are Dying Needlessly4. Cancer Patients Face Particularly Deadly Barriers to Medicines5. The Current Medicine System Neglects Many Major DiseasesPart II6. Corporate Research and Development Investments Are Exaggerated7. The Current System Wastes Billions on Drug Marketing8. The Current System Compromises Physician Integrity and Leads to Unethical Corporate Behavior9. Medicines Are Priced at Whatever the Market Will Bear10. Pharmaceutical Corporations Reap History-Making Pro tsPart III11. The For-Profit Medicine Arguments Are Patently False12. Medicine Patents Are Extended Too Far and Too Wide13. Patent Protectionism Stunts the Development of New Medicines14. Governments, Not Private Corporations, Drive Medicine Innovation15. Taxpayers and Patients Pay Twice for Patented MedicinesPart IV16. Medicines Are a Public Good17. Medicine Patents Are Arti cial, Recent, and Government-Created18. The United States and Big Pharma Play the Bully in Extending Patents19. Pharma-Pushed Trade Agreements Steal the Power of Democratically Elected GovernmentsPart V20. Current Law Provides Opportunities for Affordable Generic Medicines21. There Is a Better Way to Develop Medicines22. Human Rights Law Demands Access to Essential MedicinesConclusionNotesIndex