Health Affairs, 27, no. 1 (2008): 121 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.121 © 2008 by Project HOPE	New Online   Pay Cuts For Medicare Docs   Access To Care Woes   Public Coverage More Efficient   Empowering Consumers

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Drugs & Vaccines

PROLOGUE

Assuring Access To Affordable Drugs And Vaccines

Securing affordable access to needed medications remains an enduring challenge for policymakers in both the United States and the developing world. Two critical pieces of this conundrum—ensuring the availability of drugs and vaccines tailored to the local disease burden and enabling people to afford the purchase price of their medications—bedevil the developed and developing worlds in different ways. The "patent rents" system, the bedrock compact between policymakers and pharmaceutical companies, encourages robust research and development (R&D) investment based on an expectation that drug producers can recoup their costs in bringing a product to market. This system assures users in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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