List Price: $26.95 Details

Save: $3.25 (12%)

FREE Returns

No Import Fees Deposit & $16.09 Shipping to Finland Details

Delivery Tuesday, April 23. Order within 20 hrs 4 mins

Or fastest delivery Friday, April 12

Deliver to Finland

In Stock

$$23.70 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$3 delivery April 8 - 16. Details

Deliver to Finland

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Label Emmaüs

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Follow the author

Merrill Goozner

Follow

The $800 Million Pill: The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs First Edition

by Merrill Goozner (Author)

24

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$23.70","priceAmount":23.70,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"23","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"70","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"J5PIFu3lhzpavUANFPeG03Of7WgYHE44ce%2BMAG8ze36sjWTn468djCKB6JPO3MmGOcu2tIX9Sh8WbzPoGo0Nx4PoZ8NuYLUFawlzM%2FVOBrGv%2BiqrRUbTDrEbpeDU8KqcAipqzqa%2FMTY%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$5.40","priceAmount":5.40,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"5","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"40","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"J5PIFu3lhzpavUANFPeG03Of7WgYHE44FvQKy5VAZowIOs%2ByboOGh1RaWLurSXKiJRJM5KgBiPD7EygSZj22Rs7fA5d3t24Ceukvy%2BGAQC%2BkC6lVOaWXrNrPi28QtsFLTZYgyzeRnishYuM9OQO9PK%2BJf%2FX%2Bn7usEmR%2BGO7CZbX8hG4lVH0YpIb%2FIEQcAxzn","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Why do life-saving prescription drugs cost so much? Drug companies insist that prices reflect the millions they invest in research and development. In this gripping exposé, Merrill Goozner contends that American taxpayers are in fact footing the bill twice: once by supporting government-funded research and again by paying astronomically high prices for prescription drugs. Goozner demonstrates that almost all the important new drugs of the past quarter-century actually originated from research at taxpayer-funded universities and at the National Institutes of Health. He reports that once the innovative work is over, the pharmaceutical industry often steps in to reap the profit.

Goozner shows how drug innovation is driven by dedicated scientists intent on finding cures for diseases, not by pharmaceutical firms whose bottom line often takes precedence over the advance of medicine. A university biochemist who spent twenty years searching for a single blood protein that later became the best-selling biotech drug in the world, a government employee who discovered the causes for dozens of crippling genetic disorders, and the Department of Energy-funded research that made the Human Genome Project possible--these engrossing accounts illustrate how medical breakthroughs actually take place.

The $800 Million Pill suggests ways that the government's role in testing new medicines could be expanded to eliminate the private sector waste driving up the cost of existing drugs. Pharmaceutical firms should be compelled to refocus their human and financial resources on true medical innovation, Goozner insists. This book is essential reading for everyone concerned about the politically charged topics of drug pricing, Medicare coverage, national health care, and the role of pharmaceutical companies in developing countries.

ISBN-10

9780520246706
ISBN-13

978-0520246706
Edition

First Edition
Publisher

University of California Press
Publication date

October 10, 2005
Language

English
Dimensions

5.8 x 0.76 x 8.8 inches
Print length

304 pages
See all details

Editorial Reviews

Review

"American expenditures on prescription drugs doubled between 1990 and 2000 and currently account for close to ten percent of total healthcare costs. Concerns about availability to seniors and the poor have led many to question these high costs, which pharmaceutical companies have always justified as necessary to spur the creation of new and better drugs. In this well-researched book, Goozner, former chief economics correspondent at the "Chicago Tribune, disputes these claims. He chronicles the actual clinical process by which new drugs come into being, from basic scientific research on disease processes conducted at universities and government labs to the synthesis of new chemicals."--"Library Journal

From the Inside Flap

"The $800 Million Pill is a masterful work of explanatory and investigative journalism. Merrill Goozner has versed himself in the interlocking worlds of medicine, business, politics, and basic science to explain how pharmaceutical breakthroughs truly occur. He also explains why drug costs are now so needlessly high. This is a compelling and important book." James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly, author of Breaking the News

"Merrill Goozner does a superb job at explaining just how the pharmaceutical industry gets away with systematic overcharging, and why bio-medical advances do not require the current profiteering. This is the definitive book on this vital topic." Robert Kuttner, Co-Editor of The American Prospect and author of Everything for Sale

"Why do your prescription drugs cost so much? The real answers may surprise you. In a lively and straightforward narrative, veteran journalist Merrill Goozner goes behind the headlines and pharmaceutical industry spin to uncover the politics and the practices that drive up drug costs. His diagnosis and prescriptions make a valuable contribution to the growing national debate over safe, quality and affordable health care for all Americans." Clarence Page, syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune

"Merrill Goozner has written an important book. The high-stakes national debate over what to do about prescription drug coverage and costs too often suffers from a dearth of facts and analysis. This volume helps to fill that gap by illuminating the seemingly opaque world of pharmaceutical research and development." Susan Dentzer,Health Correspondent for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS

From the Back Cover

"The $800 Million Pill is a masterful work of explanatory and investigative journalism. Merrill Goozner has versed himself in the interlocking worlds of medicine, business, politics, and basic science to explain how pharmaceutical breakthroughs truly occur. He also explains why drug costs are now so needlessly high. This is a compelling and important book."―James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly, author of Breaking the News

"Merrill Goozner does a superb job at explaining just how the pharmaceutical industry gets away with systematic overcharging, and why bio-medical advances do not require the current profiteering. This is the definitive book on this vital topic."―Robert Kuttner, Co-Editor of The American Prospect and author of Everything for Sale

"Why do your prescription drugs cost so much? The real answers may surprise you. In a lively and straightforward narrative, veteran journalist Merrill Goozner goes behind the headlines and pharmaceutical industry spin to uncover the politics and the practices that drive up drug costs. His diagnosis and prescriptions make a valuable contribution to the growing national debate over safe, quality and affordable health care for all Americans."―Clarence Page, syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune

"Merrill Goozner has written an important book. The high-stakes national debate over what to do about prescription drug coverage and costs too often suffers from a dearth of facts and analysis. This volume helps to fill that gap by illuminating the seemingly opaque world of pharmaceutical research and development."―Susan Dentzer,Health Correspondent for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS

About the Author

Merrill Goozner is former Chief Economics Correspondent at the Chicago Tribune. Winner of six Peter Lisagor Awards, Goozner is a contributing editor for The American Prospect. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Washington Monthly, Fortune Small Business, Slate.com, and Salon.com, among other publications.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0520246705
Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (October 10, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780520246706
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520246706
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1430L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 0.76 x 8.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,083,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #272 in Health Policy (Books)
- #568 in Pharmacology (Books)
- #952 in Health Care Delivery (Books)

Customer Reviews:
24

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Merrill Goozner

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

24 global ratings

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Del Lewis-Chia

America's Healthcare System is a Mess and...

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

Mr. Goober provides understanding as to one of the primary reasons why: drugs. So much of the economy's most important resources including dollars and scientific research are being wasted. As a country, we must prioritize and carefully pick our battles. Real discoveries in medicine is one of them. But all the money thrown at defending market share, me-to-products, advertising for something new that isn't makes those giant steps for mankind nearly impossible to take. The federal government needs to take a more active part in designing a healthcare system that works for all its citizens, not just the corporations and hedge funds.

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2005

Verified Purchase

The subject material, while interesting, is unfortunately presented in a redundant and disorganized fashion. The book reads more like a collection of stories than as a coherent whole.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joel M. Kauffman

Masterful expose, but some blind spots.

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2004

A masterful work on the exaggerations by Big Pharma on the cost of developing new prescription drugs. Tells detailed stories of the development of erythropoietin (Epo), Ceredase, Replagal, AZT and triple cocktail for AIDS, Cisplatin, Taxol, Erbitux, sulfanilamide, Tagamet, Zantac, Prilosec, Nexium and others. The stories are easy to understand and back up Goozner's contention that most real breakthroughs in drug development are the result of long years of work by academics or in government labs (NIH), and occcasionally by biotech firms, usually not by the Big Pharma companies.

Goozner confirms others in noting that about 4/5ths of "new" drugs, while being new molecules, are similar to others on the market. This consumes most of Big Pharma's research and sales dollars. He shows that simply purifying a drug to sell one of two isomers (left-handed, say, not mixed left- and right-handed) will get a new drug approval from the FDA (Nexium vs. Prilosec, I think). Sometimes this is valuable for patients, but not always. In ibuprofen it does not matter.

Goozner carefully works out the cost of a typical new drug launch at $100 to $200 million, a lot, but not $800. Many details are explained, such as orphan drugs, and access for compassionate use. Some of the perversions of drug trials are exposed, such as failure to compare a new drug with the best previous one. The limitations of newer NSAIDS (Celebrex, Vioxx) and many anticancer drugs are brought out.

This book has good good academic referencing and a good index. So why only 4 stars? The layout, some of the chemistry and some of the pharmacology.

Each paragraph is a gem of understandable prose. From p229: "As the twenty-first century dawned, the drug industry's search for new drugs to replace old ones coming off patent became frenzied. There were fifty-two drugs with more than $1 billion in sales in 2000, but forty-two were slated to lose their patent protection by 2007. The drugs that account for fully half the industry's sales were on the cusp of low-cost, generic competition. But instead of looking for truly innovative medicines, which are dependent on the maturation of biological understanding and even then are difficult to find, an increasing share of the industry's research and development budgets turned to the search replacement ["me-too"] drugs..." However, I found it hard to read this book for more than 20-40 mintues at a time. There are no tables, graphs, photos, section headings or sub-section headings; it is one continuous mass of text except for chapter headings, most of which are cute, but do not explain what is on the chapter.

Occasionally people are mentioned with no context (Kessler, p145).

Chemically, the most serious error was confusing positional isomers on a benzene ring with left- and right-handed forms of a drug, which depend on the positions of 4 different substituents on a carbon atom (p221). These are called "optical isomers". Only exact mirror image compounds are called enantiomers.

Pharmacologically, Goozner was not aware of the misleading effects of lead time bias (earlier detection on 5-year survival rates in cancer. He overstated the benefits and understated the risks of cisplatin and Taxol, not looking for all-cause death rates. Conversely, he took at face value the claims for anticholesterol and blood pressure drugs, which have very few benefits long-term. He missed that the ALLHAT trial of blood pressure drugs had no placebo (p248), so based on earlier trials that did, no standard drug treatment for moderately high blood pressures is worthwhile. See: Joel M. Kauffman, Bias in Recent Papers on Diets and Drugs in Peer-Reviewed Medical Journals, J. Am. Physicians & Surgeons, 9(1), 11-14 (2004).

Still, this book is a valuable reference to have.

57 people found this helpful

Helpful

RJB

Update needed

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2010

Verified Purchase

In light of the healthcare debate, this book needs to be updated. The third section on Big Pharma is the real critical information part. I guess America likes the idea of heavy advertising and an army of drug sales people for the me-too drugs, reformulated prescriptions at the same ultra high prices, the lack of real innovation, the overlooking of true research dedication for obscure diseases, etc. This book is too important not to go into a new, expanded edition.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

alex lawson

Pharma are robbing us sick!

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2016

Verified Purchase

Pharmaceutical corporations are a racket. They force the American people to pay for our pharmaceutical drugs three times, first to develop the drug at national laboratories or through grants to universities, second tax payer dollars to grant and protect the monopolies, and finally in the astronomically higher drug prices we pay in America compared to anywhere else on earth.

Get the facts, read this book.

Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2005

Verified Purchase

Sometimes a writer's bias is so transparent that you don't even need to develop a rebuttal. You simply acknowledge his bias and respect his right to express his extreme, albeit twisted, view of the world.

Goozner is an economist, I majored in economics in both undergrad and grad school, the rest of my education is in chemistry, molecular biology, business and law. He writes about academic research, I have worked at National Laboratories and well known universities. He writes of the pharmaceutical industry, where I spent nearly a decade. And he writes about the biotechnology industry, where I spent another decade. Amazingly, all my life I have spent discovering and developing drugs. So I think I can say I read this book not as a layman, although at times it seemed to be written by one.

I usually enjoy books that are critical of things. They have a tendency to keep us honest and make us all too aware of our faults. But this book, while laudable for its story telling and historical walkabout, did not really get to a point where it stood on firm ground. So in the end, it was so overstated in its extremism, I could not take it seriously. Any good point that could have been made was underminded in its credibility by statements at times so braced by sheer nonsense, I felt bad for the author. I never did take this book seriously.

Goozer is one of those folks that does not believe the constitution is correct to provide protection to inventions through patents. Nor does he seem to believe in capitalism. Rather, he posits that pure open academic research is all that is needed to develop drugs. To him, the Bahy-Dole Act was a license for the pharmaceutical industry to steal from academia.

He would have us believe that all the great drugs developed today really come from academia. If you believe that, then you believe that the internet, as we now know it, including Amazon.com itself, came 100% from academia. Well no Mr. Goozner, Netscape founders and developers of Mosaic did indeed develop their "inventions" at the University of Illinois, but it took good old capatilism and $$ to turn all that into sophisticated products and tools. That is called fundamental research, basic research, being developed into marketibal products. The goal of academic research is not to develop marketable products, it is to further knowledge. The Bayh-Dole Act briged that basic research to the marketplace and last year alone, "academia" made $4 billion from license fees it recieved from those crooks that stole their technology and passed it off as their own after faking an $800 million investment.

The tens of thousands of industry scientists that spend decades developing drugs based on technology licensed from academia should be insulted by a book claiming they had no role in developing the product. I know I am, and I was in academia once.

Lots of things in his book are just plain wrong. To many to list. No need to, because his fundamental thesis is wrong to. I don't question his telling of all the history though, just his conclusions from it.

Lets take the $800 million. He tells us it costs only $100 million and not $800 million to develop a drug. Well, that is not quite what that number means. The $800 million is the cost for the one drug that made it to market, and the 50 that failed in research. That is called an absorbed cost. You see, the vast majority of drugs that are developed never see the pharmacist's shelf. I worked on one such drug that was abandoned after my company spent over $50 million developing it. Now if you are a stockholder, you think you might want a return on your investment. That one successful drug is it.

If we follow Mr. Goozner to the end of his diatribe, we would find that he literally expects the entire drug industry to be a non-profit industry. Well then, since Amazon.com was created from technology that came from academia, it should declare non-profit status and give away all its profits.

What could have been a strong calling to task on the pharmaceutical industry turned out to be nothing more than the fringe, almost socialist, views of an anticapitalist.

Finally, for an economist I was amazed that he managed to oversimplify how the pharmaecutical industry makes development decisions with all his "me too" drug conclusions. If I have to explain that one I am afraid I am going to have to hop on my pro Posner/Pareto/Coase pedistle and preach, which I don't want to do. That takes me back to my first statements. This author is bias against patents, capitalism, and a little uninformed about science (when he tried to be one, he made it obvious why he is not one). But I did like the walk through history, enough to ignore the misleading filters through which me wanted us to view that history. I gave him an extra star for that one. If you are a social engineer or igorant, you might like this book. If you are at all informed, it will leave you like a parody, amused and nothing more.

60 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Amazon Customer

製薬・バイオ業界をちょっと引いた感じで批判してます

Reviewed in Japan on April 17, 2005

Verified Purchase

本書は、一言でいうと、欧米の製薬業界がどのように
金儲けをしているのかを批判した本です。
要するに、公的な研究機関が国民の税金で開発した
先進技術を利用して、さらに高い薬代を患者に請求している
つまり、国民のお金が二重に取られているということを批判しています。
特に、エイズの治療薬、プロテアーゼ阻害剤の開発競争について
たくさんのページが割かれています。
実際の開発者の自伝がたくさん出てますが、こういう形で
客観的に整理されたものを読むのはいいことだと思います。
著者の主張は、一貫しているのですが、それを支えるような
数値データなどは乏しいと感じました。
しかし、２０世紀の最後の四半世紀の製薬業界の
歴史を概観するには、すぐれた本だと思います。
科学的な知識は少なくても、読みとおせます。

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

See more reviews

Price		$23.70
AmazonGlobal Shipping		$16.09
Estimated Import Fees Deposit		$0.00

Total		$39.79

Return this item for free

Shipping & Fee Details

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

The $800 Million Pill: The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs First Edition

Purchase options and add-ons

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Inside Flap

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Merrill Goozner

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new: $23.70$23.70 Delivery Tuesday, April 23 Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Shipping & Fee Details

Buy used: $5.40

Sorry, there was a problem.

Sorry, there was a problem.

Follow the author

The $800 Million Pill: The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs First Edition

Purchase options and add-ons

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Inside Flap

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Merrill Goozner

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$23.70

Delivery Tuesday, April 23

Ships from: Amazon.com

Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used:

$5.40