MONOPOLY MEDICINE FROM ASPIRIN TO COVID-19
The Hartmann Report
Thom Hartmann
4.3 • 8 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2022
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Prescription drug prices need to change. They prevent use in places like Africa, where their use can be desperate. Although research is expensive, (some government financed) today, the supply of prescription drugs is all about profit – not ethics. How did this happen? Freelance journalist and contributor from The Nation and The Jacobin Alexander Zaitchik joins Thom to explore this conundrum. Wisconsin Representative Mark Pocan answers listener questions in a national progressive town hall meeting.
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Transcript
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| 0:28.1 | iHeartRadio |
| 0:42.7 | This is the Tom Hartman program. |
| 0:47.6 | Welcome back, Tom Hartman here with you. |
| 0:49.2 | On the line with us is Alexander, Alex Zeichek. |
| 0:53.3 | Alex is a freelance journalist focusing on politics, media, and the environment, |
| 0:56.8 | a contributor to both the nation and Jacobin. |
| 0:59.3 | Author of the new book, Owning the Sun, a people's history of monopoly medicine from aspirin to COVID-19. |
| 1:06.7 | The website Zeichek is Z-A-I-T-C-H-I-K dot com. |
| 1:12.6 | And Alex, welcome back to the program. |
| 1:14.8 | It's been a while since we've talked. Tell us about this book. |
| 1:17.4 | It has. Well, it was sort of a pandemic project. |
| 1:21.9 | I've been writing about prescription drugs and drug pricing politics for a few years, |
| 1:26.5 | but when the pandemic struck, it was clear that that same set of issues was about to return |
| 1:32.3 | in the context of a global public health crisis. |
| 1:35.5 | And the last time we saw a stress test of the global intellectual property regime as it applies |
| 1:42.0 | to medicines we had, or rather disaster situation, |
... |
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