DRUG PRICES STILL A SHAM
Letter to the Editor SF Chronicle 6nov00
Editor -- I enjoyed Tom Abate's article on drug prices in the Oct. 16 Chronicle. I was the deputy executive director of the U.S. Price Commission in 1972-73 and then the executive director of the Stanford University Medical Center from 1973-74 and then a senior executive in the ALZA Corp. -- a pioneering pharmaceutical firm.
In 1993, I wrote an opinion page article for The Chronicle on soaring drug prices. Here are some excerpts:
This industry has produced some magnificent products and done much to help alleviate pain and suffering. It is also an industry composed of countless individuals who are working hard to benefit mankind.
But at what cost to society? What other industry claims that it should be rewarded with higher prices and profits because it has such an inefficient product development process that only 1 out of 10,000 attempts at creating a useful product are successful?
What other industry charms Wall Street with its profitability while simultaneously crying poor on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue?
What should the individual leaders in this industry do? First, start every day and every meeting by reminding themselves that their first responsibility is to improve and maintain the health of all Americans. Second, dramatically change the way they do business to significantly improve the productivity of their R&D process. Third, totally re-evaluate their entire cost structure.
Finally, they should support and actively lobby for basic health care being available to all at affordable prices and be prepared to help share the burden of making that possible.
That was what I wrote in 1993. Unfortunately, not much has changed in the last seven years.
