Hastings Center News

New in Bioethics Briefings: Ethical Drug Pricing

Many prescription drugs are prohibitively expensive. In the United States, brand-name prescription drug prices are higher than in other wealthy countries. What prices can be ethically justified? “Ethical Drug Pricing,” a new chapter in our Bioethics Briefings written by Paul T. Menzel, examines this question. Some of the most important elements in the ethical assessment of drug pricing are: 1) costs of developing drugs, 2) the role of market competition, 3) difficulties in discerning effectiveness, 4) the promising approach of value-based pricing, and 5) challenges that pharmaceutical markets present for global justice. Read the chapter.

Hastings Bioethics Briefings contains overviews of issues in bioethics of high public interest. The chapters, written by leading ethicists, are nonpartisan, describing topics from a range of perspectives that are grounded in scientific facts.