Host Joseph Pace and guests explore how California is addressing the price of prescription medicines.
The United States spends 18% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare, and a significant proportion of our spending is on prescription drugs. The high costs of new medications and recent dramatic increases in the price of older drugs have led to a renewed interest in curbing the cost of pharmaceuticals.
Why are medications so expensive? What is California doing to increase transparency and ensure access to life-saving medicines? And, what can the consumer do to reduce the cost of their own drugs?
Guests:
- Robin Feldman, Director of the Institute for Innovation Law at the University of California Hastings; author of “Drug Wars: How Big Pharma Raises Prices and Keeps Generics off the Market”.
- Lisa Gill, Deputy Editor of Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs.
- State Senator Dr. Ed Hernandez, author of Senate Bill 17; Chair for the Senate Committee on Health.
Resources:
Feldman, Robin, Federalism, First Amendment & Patents: The Fraud Fallacy (2015). 17 Columbia Science and Technology Law Review 30 (2015).
Feldman, Robin and Wang, Connie, May Your Drug Price Be Ever Green (October 29, 2017).