Drugs, Money, and Secret Handshakes
The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices

Examines the pharmaceutical industry to expose how higher-priced drugs receive favorable treatment and patients are channeled toward the most expensive medicines.

Robin Feldman (Author)

9781108482455, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 April 2019

196 pages, 6 b/w illus. 6 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.4 cm, 0.46 kg

''Everyone has a limit. Every budget has an endpoint' cannot apply to an industry that is consistently anti-competitive and monopolistic. Feldman offers potential solutions and exposes the limits inherent in each. Consumers who find this salient will be motivated to investigate further and alleviate their information gaps.' S. M. Mohammed, Choice

In the warped world of prescription drug pricing, generic drugs can cost more than branded ones, old drugs can be relaunched at astronomical prices, and low-cost options are shut out of the market. In Drugs, Money and Secret Handshakes, Robin Feldman shines a light into the dark corners of the pharmaceutical industry to expose a web of shadowy deals in which higher-priced drugs receive favorable treatment and patients are channeled toward the most expensive medicines. At the center of this web are the highly secretive middle players who establish coverage levels for patients and negotiate with drug companies. By offering lucrative payments to these middle players (as well as to doctors and hospitals), drug companies ensure that inexpensive drugs never gain traction. This system of perverse incentives has delivered the kind of exorbitant drug prices - and profits - that everyone loves except for those who pay the bills.

1. Introduction
2. The landscape – where do the dollars flow
3. PBMs and insurers
4. Pharmacies, doctors, and patient groups
5. May your drug price be ever green
6. Solutions.

Subject Areas: Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Medical & healthcare law [LNTM], Intellectual property law [LNR], Competition law / Antitrust law [LNCH], Politics & government [JP]