Prescription for the People - (Culture and Politics of Health Care Work) by Fran Quigley (Paperback)

About the Book

In Prescription for the People, Fran Quigley diagnoses our inability to get medicines to the people who need them and then prescribes the cure. He delivers a clear and convincing argument for a complete shift in the global and U.S. approach to developing and providing essential medicines--and a primer on how to make that change happen. Globally...

Book Synopsis

In Prescription for the People, Fran Quigley diagnoses our inability to get medicines to the people who need them and then prescribes the cure. He delivers a clear and convincing argument for a complete shift in the global and U.S. approach to developing and providing essential medicines--and a primer on how to make that change happen.

Globally, 10 million people die each year because they are unable to pay for medicines that would save them. The cost of prescription drugs is bankrupting families and putting a strain on state and federal budgets. Patients' desperate need for affordable medicines clashes with the core business model of the powerful pharmaceutical industry, which maximizes profits whenever possible. It doesn't have to be this way. Patients and activists are aiming to make all essential medicines affordable by reclaiming medicines as a public good and a human right, instead of a profit-making commodity. In this book, Quigley demystifies statistics and terminology, offers solutions to the problems that block universal access to medicines, and provides a road map for activists wanting to make those solutions a reality.

Review Quotes

An accessible, empowering plea to act on a vital issue.

-- "Library Journal"

Explores the reasons behind high prescription drug costs and the consequences of those costs for individuals, drug companies, and governments.... Easy-to-read short chapters. Many references from top journals and government documents.

-- "Choice"

About the Author

Fran Quigley is Clinical Professor and Director of the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University McKinney School of Law. He is the author of If We Can Win Here, also from Cornell, How Human Rights Can Build Haiti, and Walking Together, Walking Far. He is the cofounder of People of Faith for Access to Medicines, pfamrx.org.