The Cost Of Prescription Drugs Is Justified Summary

Richard Epstein, a senior fellow at Hoover Institution writes, “The Cost of Prescription Drugs Is Justified"(2009), which defends the high cost of pharmaceutical drugs that are seen in today’s market. To start, Epstein acknowledges the widespread belief in America that pharmaceutical drugs cost too much. He discusses the rise of profits in drug companies in comparison to their success on Wall Street citing that companies such as Pfizer have had to cut-costs due to a lack of success in stocks. Then, Epstein focuses on four key ideas that help to explain the high cost. The first idea Epstein explores is the economics involved with drug-making. Drug companies earn most of their profits from one or two highly profitable drugs. The author claims that when generics or

over-regulation are allowed, the money for the pharmaceutical companies runs out, hurting the ability to develop new drugs. Then, Epstein focuses on the clinical trials and the cost related to them.

The time and cost it takes to put a drug through the trials as well as the FDA’s regulations make the rarely successful process a huge commitment for these drug companies. Next, the author compares the cost of drugs to the amount of lawsuits the companies receive. There are many risks to mass-producing drugs and with the FDA siding with Public Safety, the author states that drug companies can lose a lot of money. This is because the FDA is not willing to take any risks in approving drugs due to the repercussions being so severe, The final idea the author discusses is the process of research itself. The drug companies revenue is put towards developing new drugs that will help the public. This can be a very costly process which is why a lot of money is needed to support the research. Epstein’s purpose in writing this article is to defend the rising costs of pharmaceutical drugs in order to get people to understand the drug companies point of view and contributions to society. This article can be considered credible because it comes from Opposing Viewpoints in Context. This is a very reliable database for gathering

articles. Also, the author is a member of Hoover Institution, a Stanford affiliated research institution. This makes him a very reliable source as studies from Stanford University are considered to be some of the more thorough and respected in the world. The article also supports its key points with factual evidence that proves each problem hurts drug companies. This is important as it helps to support the author’s point of view that the cost for these drugs makes sense. Although the source is very credible, a possible limitation to this source is that it is written in 2009. While this may seem like an outdated article, it takes a while for FDA regulations to change so the problems described in this article are still prominent today. This allows articles involving the drug approval process to be relevant for a long period of time. I will use this source to show a point of view that supports the cost of these drugs. When talking about the science that explains the cost of drugs, this will be a valuable source as it explains the cost of the drug approval and manufacturing process. The perspective will help to contradict the common belief that drug costs are too high, which will also strengthen my research and paper.