Leader: Sunil Saksena
Drug Pricing–Tentative Discussion Outline for Dec 14, 2017
The Problem Document that drug prices are higher in the US than anywhere else
Why are they higher and how are prices set ? Compare US with foreign countries
Pharmaceutical Cos justify high prices needed to support high R&D expenditure- the case for and against
What can be done to lower them? What do other countries do? In the US it seems a combination of modifying patent law, FDA approval process,some regulatory changes, allowing certain imports, and allowing Govt negotiated Medicare drug prices, could hel lower prices.
What is an “appropriate “ price for a drug? A value based approach. Who decides?
The High Cost of Prescription Drugs in the United States
Origins and Prospects for Reform
https://dariendma.org//wp-content/uploads/Drug-Prices.pdf
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-drug-prices/
https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/09/economist-explains-2
https://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/OfficeofMedicalProductsandTobacco/CDER/ucm129385.htm
http://www.newsweek.com/prescription-drug-pricing-569444
IQ2US: Health care costs in the U.S. are some 18 percent of GNP, nearly double what other rich countries spend. We read of drug therapies that cost $100,000 a year or more, and of drug price increases that are 6 times the rate of inflation, on average, and often much more when mergers reduce competition in the industry. Is this a major driver of excessive health care costs? Or is it a by-product of the huge costs of getting new drugs approved? Has big pharma delivered drugs that reduce the need for costly surgeries, which extend life and improve its quality? Or do they deserve the blame that has been leveled against them?
https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/blame-big-pharma-out-control-health-care-costs
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/six-tips-for-fighting-rising-prescription-drug-costs-2015-09-15
http://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/pdf/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1252
http://www.csrxp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/CSRxP-Policy-Platform-Summary.pdf
https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/health/healthy-living/2017/04/drug-prices-download-final.pdf
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20140214.037238/full/
https://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/Transparency/Basics/ucm194904.htm
An article about how and why some drugs are less expensive paying cash vs through insurance:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/health/drug-prices-generics-insurance.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Happy Wanderers — Walkway Over the Hudson River – 21 September, 2017
Driving directions will be provided for each car. For GPS users, the address of the parking area for the Walkway is 61 Parker Avenue, Poughkeepsie, NY, 12601.

Following this hike we will take a short drive to the second property,the 80 acre Waveney Park, which is owned by the Town of New Canaan. Here the trail loop is about 1.5 miles and serenely beautiful.
A New York Times bestseller “The same gorgeous, layered richness that marked Towles’ debut, Rules of Civility, shapes [A Gentleman in Moscow]” – Entertainment Weekly “Elegant… as lavishly filigreed as a Fabergé egg” – O, the Oprah Magazine He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to. From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery. Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose. “And the intrigue! … [A Gentleman in Moscow] is laced with sparkling threads (they will tie up) and tokens (they will matter): special keys, secret compartments, gold coins, vials of coveted liquid, old-fashioned pistols, duels and scars, hidden assignations (discreet and smoky), stolen passports, a ruby necklace, mysterious letters on elegant hotel stationery… a luscious stage set, backdrop for a downright Casablanca-like drama.” – The San Francisco Chronicle From the Hardcover edition
From respected Lieutenant General and Trump Administration National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, an authoritative, highly critical analysis of the arrogance, deception, and controversial decisions at the highest level of government that led to America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. “The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C.” —H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion) Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. McMaster pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants. A page-turning narrative, Dereliction Of Duty focuses on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately deceived the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Congress and the American public. McMaster’s only book, Dereliction of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam
Meticulously researched and beautifully written, the true story of a Japanese American family that found itself on opposite sides during World War II—an epic tale of family, separation, divided loyalties, love, reconciliation, loss, and redemption—this is a riveting chronicle of U.S.–Japan relations and the Japanese experience in America.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Wednesday, October 11, 2017