1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456407003321

Autore

Goozner Merrill <1950->

Titolo

The $800 million pill [[electronic resource] ] : the truth behind the cost of new drugs / / Merrill Goozner

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2004

ISBN

1-282-35824-3

9786612358241

0-520-93928-X

1-59734-450-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (304 p.)

Disciplina

338.4/3/61510973

Soggetti

Prescription pricing

Drugs - Prices

Pharmaceutical industry

Consumer education

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART ONE. BIOHYPE -- PART TWO. DIRECTED RESEARCH -- PART THREE. BIG PHARMA -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Why do life-saving prescription drugs cost so much? Drug companies insist that prices reflect the millions they invest in research and development. In this gripping exposé, Merrill Goozner contends that American taxpayers are in fact footing the bill twice: once by supporting government-funded research and again by paying astronomically high prices for prescription drugs. Goozner demonstrates that almost all the important new drugs of the past quarter-century actually originated from research at taxpayer-funded universities and at the National Institutes of Health. He reports that once the innovative work is over, the pharmaceutical industry often steps in to reap the profit. Goozner shows how drug innovation is driven by dedicated scientists intent on finding cures for diseases, not by pharmaceutical firms whose bottom line often takes precedence



over the advance of medicine. A university biochemist who spent twenty years searching for a single blood protein that later became the best-selling biotech drug in the world, a government employee who discovered the causes for dozens of crippling genetic disorders, and the Department of Energy-funded research that made the Human Genome Project possible--these engrossing accounts illustrate how medical breakthroughs actually take place. The