News To Make You Furious is pretty straightforward this month… Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals raised the price of a vial of 1930’s anti-seizure drug from $40 to $39,000; a 97,000% increase. Did you miss that? Let us say it again…
A 97 THOUSAND PERCENT INCREASE!
Mallinckrodt’s actions are sadly common, following on Mylan Pharmaceuticals decision to raise the price of an EpiPen from $94 to over $700, and Martin Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceuticals jumping from $13.50 to $750 per tablet. We could stop there and you’d probably be angry enough, but of course we won’t… we’re going for Furious. 
So to amp up your anger, to validate your violence, to increase your indignation, we’ll give you more information. We’ll tell you how the opacity of the pharmaceutical companies contributes to price abuses, show you how drug prices are determined, explain why drug prices are so much lower around the world, and finally ask the big marquee question… WHY THE HELL AREN’T WE ON SINGLE PAYER?
Anatomy of a 97,000% drug price hike: One family’s fight to save their son, by Wayne Drash on CNN, June 2018
AOC Takes on Big Pharma and Nails Just What’s Wrong with Our Health Care System in the US, The Young Turks video, May 2019
The true story of America’s sky-high prescription drug prices, Sarah Kliff on Vox, May 2018
The High Cost of Prescription Drugs in the United States- Origins and Prospects for Reform, Kesselheim, Avorn, and Sarpatwari, Journal of the American Medical Association, Aug 2016
Fact-checking Donald Trump’s claim that drug prices are going down, by Shefali Luthra and Amy Sherman on PolitiFact, May 2019
Improving Drug Pricing Transparency and Lowering Prices for American Consumers, Douglas Holtz-Eakin testimony before US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, reprinted on American Action Forum, May 2019
HHS Marches Forward To Enhance Drug Price Transparency, Grace-Marie Turner on Forbes, May 2019
Prescription Drug Pricing, PDF from Health Affairs, May 2018
How are prescription drug prices determined? AMA Physician Communication Team at American Medical Association, April 2019
Skyrocketing Drug Prices: What’s Driving Up Costs? Erik Komendant, Association for Accessible Medicine
Here’s why many prescription drugs in the US cost so much—and it’s not innovation or improvement, Yoni Blumberg on CNBC.com, Jan 2019
5 Reasons Prescription Drug Prices Are So High in the U.S., Sydney Lupkin on Money.com, August 2016
Why prescription drug prices have skyrocketed, Robin Feldman in Washington Post, Nov 2018
How the U.S. Pays 3 Times More for Drugs, by Ben Hirschler in Scientific American
Why Are Prescription Drug Prices So High in the US? By Bryan Bowman and Daniel Payne in The Globe/Post, July 2018
Prescription Drug Costs Driven By Manufacturer Price Hikes, Not Innovation, by Alison Kidjak on NPR, Jan 2019
Why the US has higher drug prices than other countries, by Simon Haeder on The Conversation, Feb 2019
Big Pharma’s Go-To Defense of Soaring Drug Prices Doesn’t Add Up, Exekiel Emanuel in The Atlantic, Mar 2019
Lawmakers say EpiPen hikes made Mylan executives ‘filthy rich’, Jill Disis on CNN Business, Sep 2016
Martin Shkreli sentenced to 7 years in prison for fraud, Aaron Smith on CNN Money, Apr 2018
