To the Point
High Drug Prices Weigh on Patients, Will Lawmakers Respond?
Pharmaceutical start-ups are increasingly using drug patent loopholes to jack up prices on old drugs. It's just one example of the wild west of drug pricing. Unlike Europe and Canada, the US doesn't negotiate the price of drugs or provide caps. Guest host Barbara Bogaev asks whether costs are out of control, and explores what should be done about it.
By Barbara Bogaev • • 52m ListenPharmaceutical start-ups are increasingly using drug patent loopholes to jack up prices on old drugs. It's just one example of the wild west of drug pricing. Unlike Europe and Canada, the US doesn't negotiate the price of drugs or provide caps. Guest host Barbara Bogaev asks whether costs are out of control, and explores what should be done about it.
Later on the program, a look at how the Islamic State justifies its treatment of female war captives ISIS and the theology of sex slavery.
Photo: Chris Potter/StockMonkeys
In this episode
3 storiesThe Tamir Rice Case: Why Is It So Hard to Prosecute Cops?
Yesterday's decision by a Cleveland grand jury not to bring charges in the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice has drawn attention to the high hurdles to pursuing criminal charges when police kill a suspect even a child. Activists and Rice's family are weighing their options. Wesley Lowery is the national reporter for the Washington Post .
Read the story7 minAmerica's Wild West of Drug Pricing
Earlier this year, when pharma exec Martin Shkreli bought the rights to an old drug and then raised its price 5000%, Americans named him the most hated man in the country. But he is only doing what Big Pharma does everyday thanks to patent laws and America's free market approach to drug pricing.
Read the story35 minIslamic State Ruling Justifies the Sexual Slavery of Women
We've heard about the capture and enslavement of women and girls by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, particularly with Yazidi women who have been able to escape and tell horrific stories of sexual violence they endured.
Read the story8 min
