Pharmaceutical Ethics and Health Care Access
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One major transformation of the US pharmaceutical industry took place between the 1930s and 1950s, during which the industry went from one dominated by small and medium companies specializing in the bulk manufacture of fine chemicals, or the wholesale production of pharmaceuticals, to an industry dominated by several fully integrated companies, complete with extensive research facilities, growing medical departments and marketing capabilities. These changes came about due to changes in more sophisticated research and regulatory environments. As mentioned above, federal statutes only loosely regulated pharmaceuticals on the market (Gregory, 2016). This changed in 1938 when Congress enacted the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, requiring manufacturers to submit data regarding the safety of a new drug before it entered the consumer marketplace.
Furthermore, during World War II, the Committee on Medical Research of the Office of Scientific Research and Development contracted with drug companies to develop penicillin, antimalarial drugs, steroids, and replacement blood products and the companies themselves used existing connections with academic researchers to meet wartime demands. This confirmed the value of corporate research, and following the end of World War II, the pharmaceutical companies increased research facilities and staff.
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About the Book
A fragmented health care industry combined with longer life expectancies is helping to push up the price of prescription drugs.
While pharmaceutical manufacturers point to increased costs of research and development for higher prices, the truth is that big pharma and its allies operate in an environment of secrecy, with no rhyme or reason when it comes to charges.
Richard George Boudreau explores why we find ourselves in such a predicament in this book. He raises several ethical concerns, chief among them being how much should actually be charged for drugs and whether the industry itself is behaving ethically. The author tackles questions such as:
Who are the industry players and what role have each played in the crisis?
How can we begin to solve the problem of high pharmaceutical costs?
How are overpriced drugs affecting vulnerable populations and society at large?
Solving the problem of high pharmaceutical costs won’t be easy, but if stakeholders get together and do their part, it can be done. Health care providers who write prescriptions for drugs as well as the patients who take those drugs, however, must play a major role in ensuring prices remain affordable.
About the Author
Richard George Boudreau is a maxillofacial surgeon, bioethicist, attorney at law, and forensic expert who serves on the faculty of the U.C.L.A. Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery. He has earned numerous academic credentials, including B.S., M.A., M.B.A., D.D.S., MD., J.D., Ph.D., and Psy.D. degrees. He is also the author of Bioethics Perspective of the Feasibility and Implementation of an Existential Psychoanalytic Praxis Addressing End-of-Life Care in the Elderly; Incorporating Bioethics Education into School Curriculums; US Universal Health Care in 2020; and Medical Error, Ethics, and Apology.