Holding patents can be a lucrative and powerful position to be in. Here’s a proposal for how nonprofit patent holders can do more for the common good – and live up to their end of the tax break bargain.
Drug companies funded more than 116,000 educational events for doctors over four years. Now you can find out exactly which companies footed the bills and how much they paid.
A push towards prescribing generic medications rather than their branded equivalents, as flagged in the budget, may have benefits beyond simple cost savings.
Australia is spending more than A$500 million a year too much for pharmaceuticals because of a little known loophole that allows drug companies to overcharge the government.
Firms with a focus on the domestic and regional market have an incentive to distribute their medicines effectively. Local production can create a win-win situation for health and employment.
Science and technology research has become so complicated and expensive that a gap has grown between the experiments scientists would like to do and what they have the means to do.
Decades have passed and yet the issue of financial compensation for the remaining “survivors” of the thalidomide tragedy has, in many instances, remained unresolved.
Thalidomide’s manufacturer, Chemie Grünenthal, marketed the drug as safe for pregnant women despite reports it was causing malformations in newborns. Why such blatant denial?
Claire Meehan, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Pharmaceutical companies can use prescription medication ads to mislead an unwitting public for the sake of profits. While Australia prohibits such ads, the laws don’t go far enough.
Africa’s pharmaceutical industry has mushroomed in the last ten years. But its ability to keep pace with demand is being held back by a number of factors, including a shortage of specialists.
The 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine went to research on remedies derived from natural compounds. Academia is continuing the fight against ‘neglected’ diseases by similarly hunting for new drugs in nature.
Associate Professor in the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand