Asthma meds have become shockingly unaffordable − but relief may be on the way

An inhaler that costs nearly $300 in the US goes for just $9 in Germany. What gives?

Ana Santos Rutschman, Professor of Law, Villanova School of Law • conversation
March 8, 2024 • ~7 min

Blame capitalism? Why hundreds of decades-old yet vital drugs are nearly impossible to find

The shortages, which have been going on for years, have typically affected only low-cost generics rather than profitable brand-name drugs.

Geoffrey Joyce, Director of Health Policy, USC Schaeffer Center, and Associate Professor, University of Southern California • conversation
July 20, 2023 • ~9 min

Pharma's expensive gaming of the drug patent system is successfully countered by the Medicines Patent Pool, which increases global access and rewards innovation

The Medicines Patent Pool was created to promote public health, facilitating generic licensing for patented drugs that treat diseases predominantly affecting low- and middle-income countries.

Lucy Xiaolu Wang, Assistant Professor of Resource Economics, UMass Amherst • conversation
Dec. 5, 2022 • ~11 min

Nonprofit drugmaker Civica Rx is taking aim at the high insulin prices harming people with diabetes

About 1 in 4 Americans with diabetes who need insulin struggle to pay for this lifesaving drug.

Jing Luo, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences • conversation
May 9, 2022 • ~7 min

Repurposing generic drugs can reduce time and cost to develop new treatments – but low profitability remains a barrier

Drug repurposing can redeem failed treatments and squeeze out new uses from others. But many pharmaceutical companies are hesitant to retool existing drugs without a high return on investment.

Jonathan Sexton, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan • conversation
April 6, 2022 • ~11 min

What’s in your medicine may surprise you – a call for greater transparency about inactive ingredients

There are ingredients in your pills other than the one designed to treat your ailments. Those unnamed ingredients can alter how you respond to a medicine or even make you sick.

Yelena Ionova, Postdoctoral Fellow in Quality of Medical Products, University of California, San Francisco • conversation
Sept. 11, 2020 • ~7 min

Medical supply chains are fragile in the best of times and COVID-19 will test their strength

Drug shortages occur regularly in the US, even in the best of times. The pharmaceutical supply chain embodies 'just in time' shipping and has little built-in redundancy.

Mark Daskin, Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan • conversation
March 25, 2020 • ~7 min

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