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State of the Bay

City Visions: Curbing the cost of prescription drugs

"Medicine Cost", by Images Money, used under CC license/ resized and cropped
Source: http://bit.ly/2yQeLe7

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).