Addressing the key issues in the public debate about prescription drugs, this book establishes an analytical framework for the development of regulatory policy in this area. A range of international experts, working at the interface between the social sciences, pharmacy, medicine, and public policy debates, contribute to the delineation of these issues.
The underlying theme of the book is that therapeutic drugs should not be considered ordinary products. These drugs raise important social, ethical, and policy questions that transcend orthodox analytical approaches and that cut across conventional disciplinary boundaries. The object of this book, therefore, in not just to identify the major issues but also to develop some of the analytical foundations required to advance the course of public policy debate in this area.