The Risks of Prescription Drugs

Edited by Don W. Light

Paper, 128 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14693-7
$15.00 / £10.50

September, 2008
Cloth, 128 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-14692-0
$45.00 / £31.00

Calling on a diverse range of experts, this book tackles critical questions about the pharmaceutical industry and the privatization of risk. To what extent does the FDA protect the public from serious side effects and possible disasters? What is the impact of giving greater roles to the private sector and markets and reducing public oversight? This volume considers whether current rules and incentives put patients at greater risk; the effect of the expansion of disease categories; the industry's justification of high U. S. prices and the financial risk they must bear; and the underlying shifts in the burdens of risks borne by individuals in the world of pharmaceuticals.

Related Subjects

• American Politics
• Health

Series

• A Columbia / SSRC Book (Privatization of Risk)

About the Author

Donald W. Light is a professor of social medicine and comparative health care at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and a senior visiting researcher at Princeton. Over the past quarter century, he has published articles on health care reform, markets in medicine, health insurance, and the changing medical profession. More recently, he has written a series of articles and chapters deconstructing prevailing foundations of national and global pharmaceutical policy.

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