A sweeping study of drug R&D funding shows the public pays for the crucial foundations of medical breakthroughs. So why not let the public have access to them?
The Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2017 would finally allow the government to negotiate directly with drug companies to lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries, much like the VA and Medicaid do today.
A new investigation by Esquire magazine reveals how the secretive Sackler family, owners of the company that invented OxyContin, downplayed the risks of addiction and exploited doctors’ confusion over the drug’s strength.
Opioids killed more than 33,000 Americans in 2015 and certainly more last year. Half of deaths involved prescription painkillers. And most of those who overdose on heroin or synthetic opiates, such as fentanyl, first became hooked on legal pills. The US, with 5% of the people, consumes 80% of the global opioid pill production. This is an American crisis, caused by Big Pharma, politicians who colluded with it, and regulators who approved one opioid pill after another.
The debate about an exotic new kind of drug delayed the trade deal for years, thanks in part to relentless advocates who stood up to big pharma.
AARP, the non-profit seniors organization that exists to promote the financial security, pensions and healthcare of those over 50, is secretly funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization whose bills have acted against the interests of ordinary Americans, including retirees and their families. What can you do? -- sign the petition below.
Pfizer just raised drug prices for a second time this year—and it's not alone.
When all the reports are in, the Pharma-driven opioid epidemic may be one of the biggest and deadliest cons in recent history.
The Treasury Department is often a limp watchdog when it comes to policing arcane tax dodges, but this time, Treasury grew some fangs by tightening its regulations, which led Pfizer to call off the deal. Pfizer’s loss is a potent win for small-d democracy. It can provide a starting point for reinvigorating reform politics.
Growing resistance to antibiotics now allows long-treatable diseases to once again become killers. Yet, pharmaceutical companies are sacking their antibiotic researchers. Even with the looming threat of drug resistant “superbugs,” there are now less than 1,500 researchers who know how to develop antibiotics. It’s a problem rooted in the market-driven nature of the pharmaceutical industry. Big Pharma makes more money by making expensive drugs and selling a lot of them.
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