Episode 46 - "Pill of Sale"

Drug prices, shortages, and barriers to access are out of control, prompting hospitals to join forces to make their own, and spurring the emergence of inventors hoping to chart a future in which life-saving drugs can be made cheaply at home. To lock in high prices, drugmakers have learned to game the American patent system to extend their monopolies, and block generic alternatives for essential medicines. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies have for years withheld data from important clinical trials, skewed the data that is published, and put the health and safety of clinical trial participants at risk. In this episode, we will examine these trends, as well as the historical quirks of drug approval in the United States that have led us down this sick path.

Chapters

• 01:51 Drug prices out of control


• 08:08 Case story: Inhalers


• 10:38 The process of drug approval


• 14:41 American drug patent system and the games companies play


• 20:23 Behind the scenes: clinical trial results manipulation


• 22:06 Behind the scenes: clinical trial human guinea pigs


• 27:58 Behind the scenes: clinical trial oversight


• 31:21 Are drugmakers even making the medicines we need?


• 36:24 The evils of socialized medicine


• 38:10 Going forward: alternative systems

A full transcript is available as well as detailed links and sources (plus credits and more) on our website ashesashes.org.

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